


Forgotten Avengers: Book 4

by Agent Finlay (AgentFinlay), AgentFinlay



Series: Forgotten Avengers: The Recovered Files of Skoll & Hati [5]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:06:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 9
Words: 45,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23280679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentFinlay/pseuds/Agent%20Finlay, https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentFinlay/pseuds/AgentFinlay
Relationships: bucky barnes/oc, captain america/OC
Series: Forgotten Avengers: The Recovered Files of Skoll & Hati [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1604899





	1. Lemurian Star

****

**[Steve - 06:00 April 7, 2014 - NATIONAL MALL PATH]**

I’d woken up early, it was nice enough out and we hadn’t had anything to keep me busy for a few days, I needed to stretch my legs. After a few minutes of jogging I came up to another runner and let him know I was passing.

 **“** On your left.” I decided to make it a personal goal to lap the other runner, we were the only two people out here and honestly I was a little bored. I picked up my pace and before long I came up behind him again.”On your left.” I announced.

“Uh-huh, on my left. Got it.” I heard him say behind me. A few minutes passed and I slowed down a little before I came around again.

 **“** Don't say it! Don't you say it!” He shouted as he heard me approach.

 **“** On your left!” I smiled.

 **“** Come on!” I heard his pace quickened as he tried to catch me but after a bit he realized i’m too far ahead. When I came back around again he was sitting against a tree.

“Need a medic?” I asked jokingly.

“I need a new set of lungs. Dude, you just ran like thirteen miles in thirty minutes.”

 **“** I guess I got a late start.”

 **“** Oh, really? You should be ashamed of yourself. You should take another lap.” He waited a moment before continuing, “Did you just take it? I assumed you just took it.” I laughed.

 **“** What unit are you with?”

 **“** Fifty-eighth, Pararescue. But now I'm working down at the VA. Sam Wilson.” I took his hand to shake and helped him to his feet as I introduced myself.

 **“** Steve Rogers.”

 **“** I kind of put that together. Must have freaked you out coming home after the whole defrosting thing.”

 **“** It takes some getting used to.” I smiled, not really wanting to talk about it “It's good to meet you, Sam.” I turned to leave and he spoke up.

“It's your bed, right?” he asked. I turned back to him, not sure I'd heard him correctly. 

**“** What's that?”

 **“** Your bed, it's too soft. When I was over there I slept on the ground and used rocks for pillows, like a caveman. Now I'm home, lying in my bed, and It's like…”

 **“** Lying on a marshmallow.” I nodded”, “ I feel like I'm gonna sink right to the floor. How long?”

“Two tours. You must miss the good old days, huh?”

 **“** Well, things aren't so bad. Food's a lot better, we used to boil everything. No polio is good. Internet, so helpful. I've been reading that a lot trying to catch up.”

 **“** Marvin Gaye, 1972, "Trouble Man" soundtrack. Everything you've missed jammed into one album.”

 **“** I'll put it on the list.” I pulled out my notebook and pen, adding it to the list and putting it away when my phone went off. A text from Natasha. 

_‘Mission alert. Extraction imminent. Meet at the curb. :)’_

**“** Alright, Sam, duty calls. Thanks for the run. If that's what you wanna call running.” I smiled, shaking his hand again.

 **“** Oh, that's how it is?” he feigned incredulity. 

**“** Oh, that's how it is.” I mocked and he laughed.

“Okay. Any time you wanna stop by the VA, make me look awesome in front of the girl at the front desk, just let me know.”

 **“** I'll keep it in mind.”

 **“** Okay”. He looked past me as Natasha pulled up to the curb and rolled down the window.

 **“** Hey, fellas.” she smirked, “Either one of you know where the Smithsonian is? I'm here to pick up a fossil.”

 **“** That's hilarious.” I said flatly, getting into the car. Sam bent down for a better look at the driver.

“How you doing?” 

“Hey.” Natasha answered with a look that said ‘I will destroy you’ but Sam didn’t seem put off by it.

 **“** You can't run everywhere.” I said by way of explanation.

 **“** No, you can't.” he watched us pull away.

“What’s the mission? I didn’t usually get texts from Nat and my curiosity was peaked. 

“We get to take the team out to stretch their legs, apparently whatever you said to Fury made him see things your way.” She put the predatory grin back on and I sat back in my seat, highly doubting Nick Fury ever saw anything that wasn’t his way.

  
  


**[Fin - 08:45 April 7, 2014 - CLASSIFIED]**

_I won’t say i’m in Love - Evynne Hollens_

As we left the hangar I adjusted my comlink to get my music started, making sure to let the chatter filter through, with only one earbud in I could still hear the engines and the wind creeping into the gap where the cargo hold didn't quite seal. I leaned my head back and started watching the front where the team leaders stood, trying to gauge how far out from site we were. I wasn’t thrilled that the entire S.T.R.I.K.E. team had been called in on this and I wanted to get it over with. 

“Seriously?” Elena’s voice said smugly into my free ear. It took me a minute to realize what she was referring to, I’d been staring at Captain Rogers ...again. It wasn’t the first time I’d been caught, Elena has smacked me a few times during training exercise, but we were on an actual field mission. I needed to pull myself together, look somewhere else…I turned to face the other way and spotted Rollins looking at me, I couldn't break eye contact fast enough. 

Damn it eyes, why do you keep doing this to me!? I closed them as punishment and leaned my head against the cool metal of my chair. “You actually like him, don’t you.” Elena added, almost apologetically. 

“No I don't” I exhaled, She’d been teasing me about it since February and while she’d gotten more sincere with her opinions on...well, my opinions of captain Rogers, it was still a discussion I felt like we should be done having. At the very least it shouldn’t be a discussion we were having right now. 

“Yes you do, I can see it in your face. You’ve been all flustered about it. You see him and you hold your breath for the smallest moment, your cheeks color and your pupils dilate and i’m sure if I tried hard enough I could hear your heart rate incr-”

“It’s not what you think.” I cut her off with an exasperated whisper, glancing in his direction again, mildly paranoid that everyone on the plane could hear the conversation.

“Ok then what is it then? Enlighten me.” She giggled, giving me her full attention. I turned to face her and answered calmly.

“Who was your first crush?”

She replied without hesitation; “Johnny Masters, 4th grade. Mrs. Perrington’s class”

“That’s not what I meant. I meant FIRST, the very first, before you even knew what a crush was, before you met real people. When your parents read you bedtime stories and your tiny kid mind got attached to certain characters but you didn’t understand why...who was your first?”

“Robin hood.”

“The fox or Kevin Costner?” I asked, needing clarification. 

“The fox.” She laughed. 

I took a deep breath, it made the analogy I was going with a little more awkward but I went on to explain aloud the reasoning I'd been repeating to myself since New Years.

“So...instead of being told stories like Robin hood, I was told stories about Captain America and the Howling Commandos. My tiny child brain was in love with him from the moment she heard that first story. I didn’t even know they were real people until high school History and now, as an adult, that character from my childhood just popped into being and walked into my daily life. So you’re right, I do react that way every time I see him, but it’s not an adult response to him, it’s the subconscious child in my head excited to see Mickey Mouse at disneyland.”

“But he isn’t Mickey Mouse or Robin Hood. Fin, he’s a real person. A real person you have a lot in common with.”

“Not really”

“Oh, Come on Fin!” her mouth gaped for a moment in disbelief. I turned away from her and sighed.

“E. You know why I can’t even entertain that idea.” She knew my childhood, one of the few who knew.. 

“No one cares about that but you.”

“It’s too complicated, besides he's my boss!” I tried to keep looking straight ahead but my eyes still flicked in his direction.

“Love is complicated you idiot.”

“Shut up.” I said it sharply but with a laugh. My brain thinking about what she’d said. Did everyone think I was walking around the compound with a schoolgirl crush on Captain America? Did I have a crush on Captain America? No...Maybe? Fuck. Did it even matter? Captain America was a symbol, a character in a story. A real story but a story nonetheless. He was nice to look at, I couldn’t deny that. And kissing him...kissing him had been a bad idea, he was my boss and it was unprofessional. I wasn’t sure what I had been thinking, letting myself be caught up in the new year celebration. It had been nice but...it wasn’t worth thinking about, it’s not like he had acted like he was interested since then anyway. And he hadn’t mentioned it since so I assumed we were just pretending it never happened. 

**[Elena -20:26 April 7, 2014 - CLASSIFIED]**

_Lemurian Star - Henry Jackman_

I wasn’t sure where over the Indian Ocean we were precisely, but I knew we’d arrived at our destination when the quinjets engines went from propulsion to stealth. The craft had started hovering and Natasha and Rumlow had started filling the rest of us in once the engines quieted. I elbowed Fin to make sure she was awake and she nodded, letting me know that she was ready to go.

 **“** The target is a mobile satellite launch platform: The Lemurian Star. It was sending up their last payload when pirates took them, ninety-three minutes ago.” Rumlow announced to the hold full of eager Agents. It was our second official mission with Captain Rogers and everyone was expecting it to either go smoothly or horribly wrong, I was hoping for the former personally.

 **“** Any demands?” Captain Rogers asked. Rumlow nodded.

“A billion and a half.”

“Why so steep?”

“Because it S.H.I.E.L.D.'s.” When Cap realized what he was being told his face dropped, he didn’t look happy. The conversation continued and I checked my gear, picking up any useful info as they spoke. _‘How many pirates?’,’Twenty-five, top mercs, led by this guy. Georges Batroc.’_ I looked up at the monitor to make sure I would recognise Batroc if I needed to, Fin was looking too. _‘he had thirty-six kill missions. This guy's got a rep for maximum casualties.’_ Fin looked over at me with a questioning look that said ‘only 36?’ and I rolled my eyes at her as Cap asked about hostages.

 **“** Uh...mostly techs. One officer, Jasper Sitwell.” he motioned to another image on the monitor, the bespectacled man that was Sitwell was on the screen now and I wondered what the hell Sitwell was doing way out here. “They're in the galley.”

 **“** What's Sitwell doing on a launch ship?” He seemed to be asking himself the question because he didn’t look like he expected an answer, when he didn’t he started forming a game plan.

“Alright, I'm gonna sweep the deck and find Batroc. Nat, you'll kill the engines and wait for instructions. Hati, cover us from high ground but make sure you can’t be cornered, if you have to move stick with the exterior S.T.R.I.K.E. team. Rumlow, you sweep aft, find the hostages, get them to life pods. Skoll I want you with Rumlow in case he needs help with the hostages but be prepared to backup Hati or Nat if they need it. Let’s get 'em out. Let's go.”

 **“** S.T.R.I.K.E., you heard the Captain. Gear up!” Rumlow shouted, I saw Fin jump a little in her seat and was sure she agreed that Rumlow’s order yelling was superfluous. We stood at our seats, waiting for word that we’d reached the drop. I put my com to seven and waited, listening to everything around me, the adrenaline heightening my already sharp senses. 

“You do anything fun Saturday night?” Natasha’s feminine voice cut through the murmur of low tenor in the craft. I focused on the direction I heard her and started walking that way, Fin close behind me. I was surprised to hear Captain Rogers answer, I hadn't realized they were on casual conversation terms with each other.

 **“** Well, all the guys from my barbershop quartet are dead, so... No, not really.”

 **“** Coming up to the drop zone, Cap.” Rumlow’s voice cut through the rest of the chatter but Natasha ignored him.

 **“** You know, if you ask Kristen out, from Statistics, she'll probably say yes.” I tried to think...did I know Kristen? Did I even know anyone in statistics?

 **“** That's why I don't ask.” Steve answered, having to yell over the wind as the cargo door lowered. Natasha hollered back. 

**“** Too shy or too scared?” she teased.

 **“** Too busy!” He shouted, diving out of the jet with no hesitation.

“Was he wearing a parachute?” I heard Rollins ask and Rumlow answered with a chuckle.

“No. No, he wasn't.”

I saw Fin in my peripheral vision and realized she was grinning from ear to ear.

“NO Fin! Nononononono!” before I could move to stop her she was airborne, following Cap out of the plane, sans chute. I made it to the edge of the platform in time to see her land on the highest deck, take out the two men stationed there and secure a shadow where she has the best vantage point. 

I scanned the deck for movement and saw Captain Rogers climbing up the anchor chain, taking out one of the pirates as he climbed it aboard the ship. He made his way around the main deck, taking out the men on watch as quietly as he could. Some were knocked out, some thrown overboard. I lost visual on both of my freefalling teammates as I parachuted onto the deck myself, landing as Rogers thanked Rumlow for shooting a pirate that had Captain Rogers in his sights.

 **“** Yeah. You seemed pretty helpless without me.” The sarcasm from Rumlow was palpable. Natasha and another member of the S.T.R.I.K.E. team landed beside us. 

“What about the nurse that lives across the hall from you? She seems kind of nice.” she asked. I wondered briefly what Fin would say if I told her that Nat was trying to set Captain Rogers up on blind dates. 

**“** Secure the engine room, then find me a date.” He ordered, seeming genuinely frustrated at the distraction.

 **“** I'm multitasking.” She smiled as she climbed over a railing onto a lower deck. 

Rumlow found the hall we were looking for and went in, followed by a few other S.T.R.I.K.E. members. I went last, covering the door behind us. Up ahead I heard a voice say something in french and as I rounded the corner I was greeted to the sight of Rumlow holding the man’s unconscious form. Apparently I was missing all the fun.

**[Steve - 20:57 April 7, 2014 - LUMARIAN STAR]**

**“** S.T.R.I.K.E. in position.” the voice over the radio whispered. I hugged the wall and spoke into my radio.

“Natasha, what's your status?” I waited, no response. I gave it another second before asking again. “Status, Natasha?”

 **“** Hang on!” Her voice piped over the com, she sounded exasperated. “Engine room secure.” she answered, more calmly. 

“On my mark.” I scanned the deck one more time for any stragglers before counting down. “Three. Two. One.” The S.T.R.I.K.E. team opened fire and the echoes faded. I could see Batroc from here, he had to know something was up by now, if I didn't do something I would lose him. I threw the shield in his direction, the glass shattered moments before I reached the window and I lept through, kicking out what remained of the glass. I landed and glanced around the room, I didn’t see Batroc until his feet connected with my chest. He started running while I got my balance. I ripped the shield out of the lockers where it was stuck and chased after him. Rumlow’s voice came over the radio.

“Hostages on route to extraction. Romanoff missed the rendezvous point, Captain. Hostiles are still in play.” I tried to give Nat the benefit of the doubt, missing rendezvous happened, but part of me wondered if she’d gotten distracted trying to think of other women to set me up with and that thought made my head hurt.

 **“** Natasha, Batroc's on the move. Circle back to Rumlow and protect the hostages.” I ordered and got no reply. “Natasha!” I was starting to get mad but before I had the chance to say so over the radio Batroc came out of nowhere with a high kick, I blocked it right before it connected with my face but it didn’t keep me from falling backwards. I rolled, getting to my knees just in time to black another hard kick that threw me back again. I landed on my ass and barely managed to avoid a heel drop right in the jewels. Damn, get it together Cap! He kicked my shoulder as I got up, I spun away lessening the blow but my arm still went numb for a second, I used the momentum to swing at him and caught another kick to my chest. The way this was going I'd be able to tell S.H.I.E.L.D. his shoe size from the bruises. I dodged his next kick, rolling back and under him, popping back up to my feet behind him. It bought me enough time that he couldn’t work up his next kick and instead he started throwing punches, he still went for a low kick anytime I got the shield too high but he’d given up on the constant barrage. 

“I’ve got eyes on Batroc but no clean shot.” Fin’s voice whispered in my ear. “if you can get him to hold still I can take him out.” I’d keep that in mind if I got desperate but until i thought i was really losing this fight, I was sort of enjoying the change of pace. 

I waited, the next kick was aimed at my head I threw the shield up, let’s see how he liked falling on his ass.

"Cap..." Fin's voice over the line again, waiting for me to respond or get out of her way. Baltroc jumped back to his feet, clearly mad. _‘Oh i’m sorry, am I the only one allowed to take hits in this fight?’_ He threw a flurry of kicks at the shield again, great. Apparently Batroc was a one trick pony. I finally got him close enough to grab and I slammed my knee into his solar plexus a few times. He decided the best course of action was to dramatically back flip away, alright so maybe he has two tricks. "...doing it the hard way today, i see." Fin sounded exasperated and I almost told her she was welcome to join the strike team if covering me wasn't exciting enough, but I wasn't really letting her do her job as long as I was fighting Baltroc instead of letting her take the shot. 

“I thought that you were more than just a shield.” Batroc goaded, well shit. I couldn't back down now. Not when kicking me wasn’t enough for him, now I was being taunted in french. I was ready for this to be done and I was going to finish it myself. I stood up straighter, if that’s how he wants to play it, that’s how we will play it. I put the shield on my back and reached for the chinstrap on my helmet. If we were going to do this, may as well do it right.

"Cap, what are you...seriously?" Fin's voice hissed in my ear as I dropped the helmet on the ship’s deck.

“Voyons voir.” I answered Baltroc, choosing to ignore the string of curses telling me to pick up my helmet coming from Fin.

He came at me with a kick, but I was ready for him this time. I blocked it and swung a hard right hook at his face, he blocked and kicked with his left, I blocked that too. He hurled his left fist at my head and I dodged, swinging back up and putting the momentum behind my fist. It made contact with his face and I felt his nose crack under my knuckles. He staggered back, momentarily thrown off his game. When he came at me with another front kick I met him halfway, driving the heel of my boot into his knee and then his chest, he fell back. See, I can kick too. Jerk. I can do all the stuff you can do. I jumped into a spinning kick, using the momentum of the fall to slam by boot into his head, he landed on his back, dazed. He shook his head, trying to refocus his vision and started to get up. Oh no, we weren’t doing this kicking and flipping bit again, enough was enough. Before he managed to get his feet under him I charged, grappling him and running for the wall behind him, hoping to slam Batroc into it and incapacitate him for good. Instead, I misjudged my trajectory and sent us through a door. When we landed I didn’t wait for him to make a move, I drove my fist into his already broken nose with enough force to bounce his skull off the door beneath us. 

“Well, this is awkward.” Nat’s voice. What was she doing here? She was supposed to be helping get the hostages out. 

**“** What are you doing?” it was hard to keep my voice neutral but I wasn’t trying that hard. 

**“** Backing up the hard drive. It's a good habit to get into.” She said sarcastically. Good. If she was being sarcastic then she was defensive and knew I was pissed, I didn't need to pretend otherwise. 

**“** Rumlow needed your help. What the hell are you doing here?” I looked at the screen in front of her. “You're saving SHIELD Intel.”

 **“** Whatever I can get my hands on.”

 **“** Our mission is to rescue hostages.” Whatever spy crap she was doing wasn’t priority over people’s lives. 

**“** No. That's your mission.” She answered with a smile, pulling out a flash drive “And you've done it beautifully.” She started to walk away and I grabbed her arm, forcing her to look at me.

“You just jeopardized this whole operation.”

 **“** I think that's overstating things. The S.T.R.I.K.E. team had you covered. Not to mention you could have had Fin take out Baltroc two minutes ago but you'd rather drop your helmet and punch it out." She looked me over. I started to argue that whether or not I was covered wasn’t the point then a quick movement caught my attention. Batroc had gotten to his feet and before I could make the decision to go after him he hurled a grenade into the room. I deflected the explosive with my shield before grabbing Natasha and jumping through the opposite window, away from the blast. It exploded as we landed, the concussive blast sending the remaining glass raining down on us. I backed up to the wall, trying to use it as cover and see where Batroc went, he was long gone. I’d lost him. 

**“** Okay. That one's on me.” Natasha admitted, I assume to try to bring some levity to the situation but I wasn’t in the mood. 

**“** You're damn right.” I got up and headed for the extraction point, she didn’t follow and I didn’t look back. 


	2. Stormy Weather

**[Elena - 06:36 April 8, 2014 - D.C. APARTMENT]**

_THUMP, THUMP, THUMP_

I rolled over, pulling the pillow over my head. I hadn’t been able to sleep on the flight home like Fin had and the jet lag from our mission had severely fucked with my sleep pattern. When we had gotten back to the apartment I'd resigned myself to the bedroom, pulling the curtains and setting my alarm for a quick nap. I’d barely started to doze then the thumping started. 

_THUMP, THUMP, THUMP_

What the hell was she doing? I listened closer. _Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, THUMP, tap, THUMP, tap, THUMP, tap. tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap._ I exhaled, I guess I was getting up. I sat, running my fingers through my hair a few times and rubbed my palms across my face trying to get circulation to my tired eyes before I got to my feet.

Stepping into the living room I realized Fin had thrown all the curtains open and it took me a minute to get my bearings. Fin noticed me standing awkwardly in my doorway and greeted me, sounding slightly out of breath. 

“Hey!” followed by the same tapping and thumping rhythm. Once my eyes adjusted I saw her in the open space between our couch and kitchen, the only real space in the apartment, running in place. 

_Tap, tap, tap, tap._

“What the hell are you doing Fin?” I asked incredulously. Before she answered she dropped into a pushup and bounced back up onto her feet. _THUMP, tap._ She did it twice more before resuming the running in place and answering me. 

“Trying to burn off adrenaline. I didn’t get to DO anything on the mission and the initial excitement wore off on the plane and I crashed and when I woke up it all hit me.” She dropped into the pushups again before continuing. “Am I being too loud? Sorry I tried to stay in my room but there wasn’t enough space.” I watched her drop again. 

“Can you stop while I'm talking at least?” I asked. She popped up. 

“Sure!” she smiled. I thanked the universe for small favors.

“Why didn’t you just go to the gym?” I walked past her and into the kitchen, I could at least make some coffee if I wasn't going to get a nap. She’d started bouncing on the balls of her feet but her toes never left the floor so the tapping hadn’t resumed. 

“It’s past six, gyms full. No thanks” she went from bouncing to shifting from foot to foot. Right, she wouldn’t go to the gym if there were other people there, it wouldn’t do any good anyway, she would have to hold back and wouldn’t burn enough energy to work it out. I sipped my coffee, trying to come up with another solution. 

“When’s the last time you went to the Sunset Park house? February?” She held still and looked at me. I continued my train of thought. “It’s only three hours, there’s a private gym, every time I mention it you talk about needing to finish going through stuff. We JUST got back from an op, unless something huge happens we won’t get called in for another 12 hours, minimum.”

“Wanna get rid of me that bad, huh?” I rolled my eyes at her. 

“I’ll go with you. At least the bedrooms are on a different floor from the gym there so if I did want to take a nap I could! Besides, I’m pretty sure you haven’t gone since we went together and we didn’t get much done.”

“Yeah, because you found the boxes of home movies and insisted that they take priority over remodeling.”

“AND I WAS RIGHT!” I laughed, “My life would be incomplete without having seen cute little Fin doing her ‘Man with a plan’ song and dance in her PJs...wonder what our team leader would think if someone showed that to him?” I raised an eyebrow, I'd said it to tease her but was realizing that could be hilarious, not to mention potentially useful blackmail. Not that I would do anything too evil with that power. 

“You wouldn't.” she gasped. I laughed again.

“Not TODAY.” I said into my mug. She lunged to come around the counter and I went the opposite way, she missed grabbing me by inches. 

“Elena I will kill you!” she shouted. “Don’t even joke about that!” 

I was laughing too hard to breathe now, for someone who argued so hard against having a thing for our super soldier boss she sure didn’t want me to embarrass her in front of him. I knew the more I pressed her to come to terms with it the harder she would push against the idea so I dropped it, but I couldn't help be entertained. She sighed, knowing that I was probably bluffing but not entirely sure.

“You know, It IS Thursday. We could head down, be productive for the day and make it to Frank’s tonight.” she made a face that my mind translated into ‘please please please please’ 

“We can go”

“YAY!” Fin squealed. 

“But I have conditions!” I demanded, dramatically rolling my warm coffee mug between my palms. 

“Anything! We have only been ONCE since we got back from Wakanda and it was Valentine’s day so it barely counts.”

“Just remember, you agreed to conditions.” I grinned.

**[Steve - 09:47 April 8, 2014 - TRISKELION]**

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Three helicarriers, larger than the one I’d been on during the New York incident, with long range firearms mounted to the underside. I heard Director Fury mention something about eliminating thousands of hostiles a minute and turned to give him my full attention for the first time since we’d entered the hangar. 

“The satellites can read a terrorist's DNA before he steps outside his spider hole. We're gonna neutralize a lot of threats before they even happen.”

 **“** I thought the punishment usually came after the crime?”

 **“** We can't afford to wait that long.” he answered me with a straight face, he actually thought this was the way to fix things.

 **“** Who's''we”?''

 **“** After New York, I convinced the World Security Council we needed a quantum surge in threat analysis. For once we're way ahead of the curve.”

 **“** By holding a gun at everyone on Earth and calling it protection.” My voice came out calmer than I expected. For some reason, after the way things had gone with Nat earlier, I wasn't surprised that Fury genuinely thought that this was what was good for the people of the world. 

**“** You know, I read those SSR files. Greatest generation? You guys did some nasty stuff.” he countered, I didn’t see the relevance. Yes, things get messy in war but we didn’t hold entire civilizations hostage and expect them to thank us for it. 

**“** Yeah, we compromised.” I admitted, no one is perfect, “Sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well. But we did it so the people could be free. This isn't freedom, this is fear.”

 **“** SHIELD takes the world as it is, not as we'd like it to be. It's getting damn near past time for you to get with that program, Cap.”

 **“** Don't hold your breath.” I walked away before I did something I would regret. 

**[Elena - 12:32 April 8, 2014 - BROOKLYN]**

An hour into trying to get my hair to look the way it does when Fin fixes it for me, I gave up and moved on to make up, it’s not like I didn't have all afternoon to figure it out. Fin had insisted she go ahead of me to work out the details of my enforced blackmail and part of me expected her not to go through with it. The other part knew her better. That didn’t change the fact that I was regretting letting her go before styling my hair. It wasn’t like I was totally incompetent in the ways of looking nice but I hadn’t been able to master the 1940’s updo. I resigned myself to getting my eyeliner even and wondering if I could find a youtube tutorial called ‘retro hair for dummies’ or ‘40s hair in 6 easy steps’. 

My phone beeped and I wondered if Fin had left something behind. I picked it up and dropped it with a curse when I saw the words ‘rogers calling’ on the screen. The only reason I'd ever gotten a call from a supervisor was to bring us in on a mission and with Fin out this wasn’t the best time. 

“Hello?” I hoped my voice sounded neutral.

“Elena? It’s me, Steve.” He sounded nervous and was using first names, alright not a work call. 

“What’s going on?” I asked, still confused. 

“Um. Nat keeps telling me I should go to some place in Brooklyn, I haven't made the trip yet but I'm going stir crazy here. Need to get my mind off work.”

“What’s the place? I think Fin and I have been just about everywhere in the neighborhood.”

“She said it’s a restaurant that has music, Fred’s or Frank’s?” I couldn’t help the smile spreading across my face. 

“Yea I know Frank’s, I was actually planning to go tonight. The music starts at 7, if you leave D.C. now you can probably make it in time to give a girl a ride.”

“Sounds good. See you in a few?”

“Perfect! Oh, shit. I almost forgot, Thursdays are kind of a...dress code party.” I added. 

“Oh..I don’t...like a suit and tie or?”

“Yes and no...actually...do you trust me?” I asked. 

There was a long pause on the other line. 

“Steve?” I thought I'd lost him.

“I’m here...I just...someone told me that people only ask you that before they get you to do something stupid.”

“You’ve spent too much time with Fin.” I laughed. “This isn’t stupid, or crazy or dangerous. I just think I might have something you can wear, if you trust me with that sort of decision.”

“What do I have to lose? I will be there in a few hours.”

“See you then.” I hung up and couldn’t contain the laugh that burst from me. Fin was going to absolutely kill me for not telling her he was coming but my god I was tired of those two acting all professional around each other. Fin hadn’t told me for an entire MONTH that she had kissed him on new years and when she had, she spent the next two months convincing me it was nothing. Nevermind the fact that they had been flirting since the moment we got on his team. I understood that officers aren’t supposed to have relationships with agents, but if I had to watch them dance around pretending not to like each other as more than professional colleagues for much longer I was going to hire Natasha to kidnap them both and lock them in a room together. Now, not only was I bringing him to Fin’s favorite place on the night where she felt most comfortable, I was going to dress him up for the occasion.

...i just had to remember where I'd put that box...

  
  


**[Steve - 18:02 April 8, 2014 - FRANK’S]**

_Stormy Weather - Lena Horne_

I pulled up to the building and parked, knocking on the door and hoping she could hear it. It didn’t take long for her to come down and let me in and I caught myself scanning around for Fin. It was rare to see the two apart and I hadn't realized that when Elena said she would be at Frank’s tonight I had assumed they would both be going. Maybe it was for the best, my track record with maintaining a professional relationship with Fin in a civilian setting was mediocre at best. Elena smiled and I noticed that she was taller than usual, in heels and a slim black dress. She looked pretty.

“You look very nice.” 

“Thanks”, her hand subconsciously went to her hair which was pinned up and curled,” this took me hours. Usually Fin does it for me.”

“Where is she anyway? I thought you two were a package deal?” I teased, unable to keep myself from wondering how Fin would be dressed if she were here and having a hard time picturing in anything other than black on black fatigues.

“She’s already at Frank’s, this is more her thing really.” I hadn’t expected that, Fin didn’t strike me as the ‘get dressed up and go out dancing’ kind of person. “This is the thing that she does to forget about work.”

“yeah.” I smiled half heartedly, “I keep meaning to get me one of those…”

She laughed, a polite quiet laugh that knew how much truth there was in what I said.

“Right, well I have two options for you in case what I had in mind at first is too...familiar. I need to finish getting ready but it’s all laid out in the spare bedroom, do you remember where that is?”

“I think I can manage.” I smiled, walking back to the room of boxes, clothes were ironed and laid out on the bottom bunk as she’d said. The first was not too different from what I was wearing, although there was a tie, the second...the second was familiar and I suddenly understood why Elena had seen the need to give me options. My Army dress uniform was laid out, the ribbons pinned to the dark green material, the matching cap neatly folded on top it. There were even polished dress shoes on the floor. 

“Are you ready?” The knock at the door came while I was tying my shoes. “ We should go before they give away our table.”

“You have your own table?” I asked as I opened the door, wondering just how often they went to Frank’s.

“Only on Thursdays.” she smiled, looking me over and reaching up to straighten the tie. “You look very handsome... I wasn’t sure which you’d go with.”

“Thanks. I wasn’t sure myself at first...this felt right.”

We walked out and she carefully maneuvered onto the back of the bike, tucking the loose skirt around her legs. I drove slowly, not wanting to mess up her hair. When we arrived at my first impression was that Frank’s looked like a dingy dive bar, which wasn't a bad thing necessarily, I was just having a hard time figuring out why Nat thought I would like it as I stood outside.

I held out my elbow for Elena as we walked and she took it, leading me to the door. The host at the podium inside nodded and waved us into the dimly lit room where tables lined the walls. A black and white checkered dance floor was clear and led to a low stage. The stage had a spotlight, currently on an empty mic stand and piano. Elena led us to a back booth and I took the side facing the door, it meant my back was to the stage but I could turn if I needed to. As the room began to fill and I noticed everyone was dressed in a similar style to Elena, I was glad I’d taken her up on the change of clothes. Elena noticed my gawking and leaned over to be heard above the growing crowd to speak to me.

“Thursday nights Frankie throws a party with dancing and live music but you only get in if you appreciate it. Hence the dress code.” 

I looked around, not understanding what she meant. Why would people go to a live music venue if they didn't want live music?

“It’s 30s and 40s only, The same music the owner’s grandfather played when he opened the place after world war two.” She said, patting my clasped hands on the table. “You should feel right at home.”

I leaned back in the seat, finally understanding. I had been starting to wonder if this was another of Nat’s ‘get Steve a date’ schemes. I smiled to myself, maybe I would actually know some of the songs. I had gone to a restaurant that had advertised a 40s era experience but they were a little off the mark, skewing more 50s which was alien to me. 

I didn’t say much as I sat, watching more and more people arrive, recognizing the clothes and the hair styles. It was nice seeing so many people in one place dressed up I felt...normal, comfortable even, but I still hadn’t seen Fin. When I turned to ask Elena I noticed she had taken out her phone and when I'd started to ask she showed me the screen. The camera was open and ready to record, I wondered if Fin wasn’t going to make it and had asked Elena to record the music for her but before I could get an answer the music started. I recognized the opening melody and it reminded me of the girl I'd heard singing in the showers a lifetime ago. 

_‘Anyone who knows Lena Horne can be trusted’_

The singer started…

_Don't know why, there's no sun up in the sky, Stormy weather._

I froze. I recognized more than the song, 

_Since my man and I ain't together_

I knew the voice.

_It's raining all the time._

Elena must have seen me straighten in my seat, she was looking at me with concern in her eyes. I probably didn't look like someone enjoying myself at the moment. My heart was racing, my hands felt clammy. My brain was screaming at me. _Turn around you dolt, she is right There!_

I heard Elena as if I was ok and I nodded. I don't think she believed me but she smiled anyway. I swallowed and closed my eyes.

  
  


**[Fin - 20:42 April 8, 2014 - FRANK’S]**

I couldn't see much with the house lights down and the spot light on but I saw movement at my usual table and was glad Elena had made it. Three texts cursing her bobby pin skills had me worried that she had called it quits and burned down Brooklyn to avoid the trouble. I kept singing, after every song ended the crowd clapped and the piano would roll into the next song. Before I knew it he was playing the into to another Lena Horne song, although most people knew the Billie Holiday and Doris Day versions better, and I realized I was already on the last song of the set. I was happy I’d chosen to open and close with Lena, she was one of my favorites but I knew after an hour the crowd was done eating and wanted some music to dance to. 

“Alright everybody, one more song from me and then I will give the music to the professionals.” the crowd laughed softly. They would just have to get through one more song, then I would have to admit to Elena that she was right. I should have done this sooner. 

  
  


**[Steve - 20:42 April 8, 2014 - FRANK’S]**

_“Alright everybody, one more song from me and then I will give the music to the professionals.”_ her voice had a melody to it, almost like she hadn’t wanted to stop singing to make the announcement. It was the last song already but I didn't want it to be over, I'd been so distracted hearing her voice again...i wanted to see her and I could, she was right there.

I turned in the chair until I was sure I was facing the stage and opened my eyes.

The woman on stage was gorgeous, an emerald green dress hugged her waist and flared into a skirt that stopped at her knees, it wasn't enough to say it fit her, it flattered her. Her hair was rolled to frame her soft but angular face and her eyes were nearly the same shade as her dress. I knew those eyes, that face. It took me a second to place her, dolled up as she was, and even then I had trouble believing it.

  
  


**[Fin - 20:43 April 8, 2014 - FRANK’S]**

_You’re my Thrill - Billie Holiday_

I took a deep breath and sang, closing my eyes and feeling the sound of the piano vibrate the stage under my feet, making myself forget everything else around me.

_You’re my thrill, you do something to me_

Forgetting everything that had happened this week,

_You send chills right through me_

This month

_When I look at you, cause You’re my thrill_

This year.

_You’re my thrill._

I opened my eyes and for a second I thought I was imagining things.

_How my pulse increases._

Captain America was standing at the back of the dance floor, in full dress attire. 

_I just go to pieces._

My eyes met his and stayed there, transfixed. Why was he looking at me like that?

_when I look at you, cause you're my thrill._

He started walking toward the stage, I kept singing, he kept walking.

_Nothing seems to matter._

Couples trying to slow dance moved out of his path.

_Here’s my heart on a silver platter._

I closed my eyes again. I couldn't concentrate on what I was doing and think about what he was doing.

_Where's my will,_

Good question Lena, why was my heart racing? My eyes may have been closed but I could still feel him looking at me.

_Why this strange desire_

Why was I having trouble catching my breath? This song never gave me issues...it must be nerves.

_that keeps mounting higher_

I opened my eyes and he was at the stage, barely a foot below my eye level. I tried to ignore him there as I silently prayed I had imagined the nervous quiver I felt in my voice.

_When I look at you, I can't keep still_

My face felt hot and I couldn't help myself, I looked at him practically singing at him.

_You’re my thrill._

The song ended and we stood there looking at each other, my breath catching as the room erupted in applause. He kept looking at me and I couldn't stop looking at him and it seemed like the whole room was waiting for some of us to do something, anything. My brain flashed the memory of my lips brushing his and I reacted without thinking...

I ran off stage.

The band started up the dance music as I disappeared behind a curtain and sat in the first chair I saw, it was metal and cold. What the fuck was that? I held my hand to my chest, my heart was racing. I closed my eyes to try to concentrate on breathing and I just saw him there. Why? Why now? I saw him every day and never had even a butterfly flutter reaction to him. I mean, yes there may have been a little flutter on new year’s and yes he was good looking, I wasn't blind but this? What was different, He had looked different, he fit in. In this place in this moment he wasn't the soldier out of time. No, with everyone dressed up and the music playing, he was just Steve. Not Cap, with his primary color uniform and mission objective. Steve Rogers, kid from Brooklyn, here at Frank’s for a night out. My breathing began to slow, the initial surprise of him being here and looking at me like...like what exactly. I had never seen that look on his face before. When I thought about it my face felt warm. I put my cool hands on my cheeks and sat for a moment wondering if I had imagined it all. I would have to ask Elena, if I was hallucinating attractive Steve’s everywhere I should really make an appointment, who knows what kind of brain tumor placement that could be a symptom for.

  
  


**[Steve - 20:46 April 8, 2014 - FRANK’S]**

Before I knew what I was doing, I realized I was standing on the dance floor, I had walked up to the stage in a trance, not noticing until she had run off of it. I wasn't entirely sure what happened.

The voice that had asked me to swear on Judy Garland was Fin?

Agent Coulson...Phil Coulson's daughter, that same woman. After listening to her sing for the last hour I knew logically that the pieces went together but I was having trouble making them fit. I had the two so separate in my mind that the truth was jarring. I didn't know Fin well enough to know her taste in music included Lena Horne, although I did know she hated whatever Tony had been playing on new year’s eve. 

Maybe that’s what this was, we hadn’t had a chance to talk after midnight and the situation remained unresolved. I had never been able to figure out if she meant anything by it, too much time had passed it seemed too late to ask. Now, the not knowing compounded with her being my mystery girl...i was confused. That had to be it because I wasn’t sure Fin even liked me as more than a colleague. Her running away from me just now made me think I hadn’t misread her opinion of me. The fact that I had left the table and stalked up to the stage like a creep wasn't helping my confidence either. I didn't want to go back to the booth, didn't want to explain any of the conversation in my head to Elena, instead I made my way through the crowd and out the door and texted my apologies before leaving. I’d liked Frank’s; the music, the atmosphere...I just wished I hadn't made a fool of myself. I mentally smacked myself and heard Bucky’s voice.

**_‘Way to go punk, you scared her off! What were you thinking walking up like that with your jaw on the floor?’_ **

‘I don't know, Buck’, I thought back, ‘I don't know’.

What I wouldn't give to have him here to actually talk to, he was always better at this than me.


	3. Winter Soldier

**[April 8, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

_Brain X 1000 - Noise Makers_

I was awake, I felt strange and I wasn’t sure where I was or how I got there. 

_**Желан** [ _ _Longing]_

 **_Ржавыйие_ ** _[_ _Rusted]_

 **_Семнадцать_ ** _[_ _Seventeen]_

The voice was the only clear thing I had and my attention focused on it. 

_**Рассвет** [ _ _Daybreak]_

 _**Печь** [ _ _Furnace]_

 **_Девять_ ** _[_ _Nine]_

With every new word the world around me became simultaneously more, and less, focused. 

_**Добросердечный** [ _ _Benign]_

 _**Возвращение на Родину** [ _ _Homecoming]_

It was as though the part of me that heard the words and listened was suffocating the part of me that was trying to block them out.

_**Один** [_ _One]_

I wasn’t sure which side was me. 

_**Грузовой вагон** [_ _Freight car]_

“доброе утро солдат”

  
  


**[Steve - 10:58 April 9, 2014 - CLASSIFIED]**

Despite a late night driving back to D.C. I’d woken up early and gone to the Smithsonian for a couple hours. I wasn’t even sure why i’d gone, it had started as a walk to clear my head from the night before but those thoughts eventually gave way to my conversation with Fury. I suppose I wanted to remind myself why I was still working for S.H.I.E.L.D. when they wanted to instil things like Fury’s ‘project insight’. Unfortunately, if that was the case, it hadn’t worked, it had only reminded me how different things were now. I wanted to talk about it, but everyone I had to talk to was S.H.I.E.L.D. and either knew about Fury’s plan and agreed with it, or didn’t have the clearance to know about it. My options were limited and I went the the only person that I knew I could get a straight answer from. 

She greeted me when I came into the room, I sat and looked at the photos of her children on the nightstand. The family she’d made, the life she lived. It made me happy for her, I was glad that she’d gotten the life she deserved, even if it wasn’t with me.

“You should be proud of yourself, Peggy.”

“Mm. I have lived a life.” her smile was calm but melancholy, “ My only regret is that you didn't get to live yours.”

I didn’t try to pretend that she hadn’t said what I had already been thinking. I didn’t need to pretend around Peggy and even if I had tried she would have seen right through me. 

“What is it?” She asked. I knew if I avoided telling her she would keep asking.

 **“** For as long as I can remember I just wanted to do what was right. I guess I'm not quite sure what that is anymore. And I thought I could throw myself back in and follow orders, serve. It's just not the same.”

“You're always so dramatic” She laughed. “Look, you saved the world. We rather...mucked it up.”

 **“** You didn't. Knowing that you helped found SHIELD is half the reason I stay.” I tried to reassure her, she took my hand in hers as she spoke.

“The world has changed and none of us can go back. All we can do is our best, and sometimes the best that we can do is to start over.” She cleared her throat and started to cough, I knew there was a pitcher on the table behind me so I let go of her hand and went to get a glass. I turned back to hand her the drink, she’d stopped coughing but she was looking around, unfocused.

“Peggy?” I said her name and her eyes grew wide, staring at me as though she’d seen a ghost.

“Steve?”

 **“** Yeah” 

**“** You're alive! You...you came, you came back.” her voice cracked as she spoke through the well of emotion

 **“** Yeah, Peg.” It was all I could think to say.

“It's been so long.” She cried, “So long.”

 **“** Well, I couldn't leave my best girl.”I tried to smile as I spoke, “Not when she owes me a dance.”

  
  


**[Fin - 11:34 April 7, 2014 - CLASSIFIED]**

Elena was right, I had been avoiding going back to the house I grew up in. Singing hadn’t been Elena’s only condition and we had managed to put together a box of stuff that belonged to Peggy. I was excited to tell her about Frank’s, maybe not about everything, but I did want to show her the video Elena had taken. Peggy had been trying to get me to sing there for ages. 

When I arrived the nurses told me that she already had a visitor and that I would need to wait, that was fine. I was used to waiting for Sharon to leave before I could visit and I understood the nurses not wanting to stress Peggy out, besides I didn’t have any other plans for the day. Before long I heard a familiar voice talking at the nurses’ station to my left and when I looked up he was walking towards me. I still wasn’t sure what had happened at Frank’s and acted on professional instinct as I stood to greet him. 

“Captain Rogers.” I caught myself standing at attention and hurriedly shifted into a more casual posture. 

He seemed startled at first, as though he hadn’t seen me until I’d spoken despite the fact he had been looking in my direction. He seemed distracted. 

“Agent Coulson, what are you doing here?” he looked around as he asked, I wondered if he was trying to determine who I was here with and reminded myself that he didn’t know that Peggy had raised me just as much as Coulson had. 

“I came to visit My Aunt.” I smiled. 

“Why do they have you waiting out here? You can’t just go back and see her?” I kept smiling, if it had been anyone else asking I might have been wondering if they were fucking with me but I knew he was sincerely asking because he cared about the people on his team. Before I could answer the nurse walked up to us. 

“You can go see her now hon, she’s a little worked up but I think seeing you might calm her down.” The nurse went back to her desk and I couldn’t hold the smile as sincerely as I had before. I felt the grief I had, knowing it was a rough day for her, competing with the want to feel anger toward Cap for being that trigger. I looked at the zipper on his jacket to avoid his face, not wanting to betray any emotion that I might not be able to hide.

“May I ask.” I risked a glance at his face but it didn’t last long. “What happened? I’d like to know what i’m walking into.”

For a minute his face flashed confusion, and then the realization dawned on him and he realized who I was here to see. 

“Your Aunt?” he asked with a sigh of comprehension.

“Not biologically, when Coulson adopted me...she helped him. Said I needed a positive female influence...He named me after her you know. My middle name. He made my middle name Margaret.” I knew I was rambling, I didn't know why I was telling him any of this, it wasn’t his business really. On some level I think even he knew I was talking to avoid going into her room and seeing her struggling. I half expected him to call me out on it but he didn’t. Instead he put a hand on my shoulder and when I looked up at his face I realized his eyes were red from crying. He gave me a half smile before he spoke quietly. 

“For a moment, she forgot that she knew. She saw me and thought she was seeing me for the first time since…” He cleared his throat and glanced away from me for a moment. When he looked back I just nodded, I understood. Sometimes she forgot Coulson was dead, those days were hard too. I reached up and squeezed his hand, when I let go so did he.

“It’s not your fault Cap. it happens.” I tried to smile but I wasn’t sure the thought made it to my face.

“Are you going to show her the video from last night? I think she will enjoy that.”

“Yeah, she is the one that kept encouraging me to do it...she will be glad I finally did.”

“She was right.”

I should have asked what he had been doing there and why he’d walked up to the stage. I could have, but at that moment I didn't really care. Instead I bent down to pick up the small dusty box of her things, it seemed so silly now to bring her stuff she may not even remember she owned. 

“I’m glad you came to see her. I know she is too.” My voice cracked a little as I walked past him to her room without turning back.

**[Steve - 12:47 April 8, 2014 - CLASSIFIED]**

After my visit with Peggy I decided to head to the Veteran Affairs building and try to catch Sam instead of sitting around my apartment feeling sorry for myself. 

**“** Some stuff you leave there, other stuff you bring back.” I listened from outside the room, I didn’t want to interrupt.” It's our job to figure out how to carry it. Is it gonna be in a big suitcase or in a little man-purse? It's up to you.”

I stood to the side of the hallway, letting the people who’d been in the meeting file out, each of them saying something to Sam as they went. After the last one said her goodbye he headed my way.

“Look who it is. The running man.” He teased.

 **“** Caught the last few minutes. It's pretty intense.” When I’d enlisted there were no groups to talk about things you carried with you from the war, you were just supposed to be tough enough to deal with it and that was the end of the discussion.

 **“** Yeah, brother, we all got the same problems. Guilt, regret.” He answered, I could tell he really meant it. 

**“** You lose someone?”

 **“** My wingman, Riley. Fly by night mission. A standard PJ rescue op, nothing we hadn't done a thousand times before, till RPG knock Riley's dumb ass out of the sky. Nothing I could do. It's like I was up there just to watch.”

 **“** I'm sorry.” I knew how that felt, watching something happen and not being able to do anything about it. 

**“** After that, I had a really hard time finding a reason for being over there, you know?”

 **“** But you're happy now, back in the world?” 

**“** Hey, the number of people giving me orders is down to about zero. So, hell, yeah. You thinking about getting out?” 

**“** No. I don't know. To be honest, I don't know what I would do with myself if I did.” This was all I ever wanted to be and all I ever was, the idea of doing something else scared me more than war. 

**“** Ultimate fighting? I laughed. “It's just a great idea off the top of my head. But seriously, you can do whatever you want to do. What makes you happy?”

 **“** I don't know.” And I really didn’t. 

  
  


**[ 14:02 April 8, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

_The Winter Soldier - Henry Jackman_

The target was being herded to me, like a sheep, too stupid to realize that the real danger lies ahead…and still it runs from the howling behind him. Most people were little more than sheep when it came to self preservation. I stepped into the street and the other sheep moved around me, as though avoiding me could save them. What would save them was the fact that I wasn't here for them. I had my Mission. The target’s car came around the corner and straight for me. I lifted the device and aimed, launching the explosive at the target’s vehicle. It connected and detonated on impact. The vehicle went airborne in a plume of flame and smoke. I stepped aside as it slid across the pavement the metal screeching and sending sparks in its wake. Once it came to a stop, I approached. I need to confirm that the target was terminated. I ripped the crushed door from its hinges, preparing for the man inside to fight, but instead I found an escape route. He had run, burrowing out like a rat. Well then, if he wanted to play the rat I would oblige and be sure to play with my prey before putting it out of its misery.

**[Steve - 23:39 April 8, 2014 - APARTMENT]**

_It’s been a long, long time - Harry James (feat. Kitty Kallen)_

I’d stayed out later than planned with Sam, he was a good guy and it had been a long time since I'd hung out with another guy in an unofficial capacity. It was nice being treated like a regular person again. I heard talking as I climbed the stairs and saw my neighbor on the phone in the hall.

“That is so nice. Hey. I gotta go, though. Okay, bye.” She hung up, dropping the phone into the laundry basket she was carrying. “My aunt, she's kind of an insomniac.” I smiled.

 **“** Hey, if you want...if you want, you're welcome to use my machine. Might be cheaper than the one in the basement.” I offered. 

**“** Oh, yeah? What's it cost?” she smiled back, it was a nice smile.

 **“** A cup of coffee?” Who knows, I made one civilian friend today, why not go for broke.

 **“** Thank you, but um...I already have a load in downstairs, and, uh...you really don't want my scrubs in your machine. I'm just finished orientation in the infectious diseases ward, so.”

 **“** Ah, well, I'll keep my distance.” Way to go Captain smooth, you creeped her out so much she is using the old infectious diseases escape. 

**“** Well hopefully not too far.” She smiled again, I wasn't sure if she meant it or was just being polite, I started to unlock my door. “Oh, and I think you left your stereo on.”

 **“** Oh. Right, thank you.” I knew I hadn’t left anything on, I waited to make sure she was down the stairs and listened. Kitty Kallen was playing and I knew for sure it wasn’t a left on stereo. I had that song on a record, and once it finished it would stop unless someone moved the needle back to the beginning. As I listened the song went back to the beginning, confirming my suspicion that there was someone in my apartment. I checked again to make sure neighbor Kate wasn’t nearby before climbing out the hall window and onto the fire escape. I walked softly to the next window over, looking in and hoping the bookshelves hid me. I couldn’t see whoever it was so I slid it open and stepped through. The only sound was the record, the sound of the orchestra covered the slight metallic sound that my shield made when I picked it up. I turned the corner into the room where I kept my music and found Fury sitting in my chair. 

**“** I don't remember giving you a key.” I said, relaxing a little. 

**“** You really think I'd need one?” He sat up. “My wife kicked me out.”

 **“** Didn't know you were married.”

 **“** There are a lot of things you don't know about me.”

 **“** I know, Nick. That's the problem.” I stepped forward and turned on the light, Fury's face was a wreck and I could see a few other places he was bleeding from but he gestured for me to keep quiet before I could ask. He held out his phone screen so that I could read the message he’d typed. ‘Ears everywhere’. Shit, how long had my apartment been bugged? Before I could dwell on it Fury continued.

“I'm sorry to have do this, but I had no place else to crash.” he held out the screen again, this time with the message `SHIELD compromised’. I hoped that as long as I stayed on the fake topic at hand he might actually answer a question, I gave it a shot. 

“Who else knows about your wife? Fury looked at the phone again, typed. He stood up and walked towards me. 

**“** Just...my friends.” he answered, the phone screen read ‘you and me’

 **“** Is that what we are?” I almost laughed.

 **“** That's up to you.” A bullet tore through my apartment wall and into Fury followed by two more in rapid succession. I grabbed his arm, pulling him away from any line of sight and looking in the direction of the shooter. I thought I saw something on the roof nearby but I wasn’t sure. I managed to get him into the next room but as I tried to leave him to pursue his attacked he held onto my arm. I looked down and he was holding a thumb drive, I took it. 

“Don’t...trust...anyone.” He managed, before passing out. A loud banging was coming from my front door. A woman’s voice called out from my foyer. 

“Captain Rogers?” I leaned around the corner and saw the nurse from next door pointing a gun in my direction. “Captain, I'm Agent 13 of SHIELD Special Service.”

 **“** Kate?” If that is your real name.

 **“** I'm assigned to protect you.” Protect me? I wonder if SHE knew my apartment was bugged, of if she had been the one monitoring me.

 **“** On whose order?” I demanded as she walked past me. 

**“** His.” She motioned to Fury, bleeding out on my floor. She knelt beside him and pulled a radio out of her pocket. ”Foxtrot is down, he's unresponsive. I need EMTs.”

 **“** Do you have a twenty on the shooter?” A voice on the other end answered. I leaned back into my sitting room and looked out the window, the figure I'd seen before was still there. 

“Tell him I'm in pursuit.” 

**[Elena - 00:36 April 8, 2014 - CLASSIFIED]**

After Fin had left for the day I decided to go to the Triskelion archives and pull some files. I had a handful earmarked that I wanted to look into but hadn’t had the chance until now. I brought food, prepared to stay there as long as I needed and I knew I'd lost track of time. I hadn’t realized how late it was until my phone rang. I answered without looking at the number, expecting it to be Fin asking where I was. 

“Foxtrot is down” It wasn’t Fin. The voice on the other line tried to stay flat but I heard the quiver nonetheless. 

“Condition?” I asked, already packing the files to take with me.

“Unresponsive. En route to sector Lima 6, Charlie Delta 4.”

“Copy. ETA?” I wasn’t far. 

“Ten minutes?” the voice sounded unsure. 

“I can be there in Five, I expect you to do the same.” 

I wasn’t sure how many people i’d shoulder checked as I ran past them but I knew it was double digits. For some reason when people in suits see someone in jeans running they don’t fucking move, instead they expect you to go around them. Well I went through them and I hoped they learned from the experience. I spared a quick second to wonder if Fin was still with Peggy or if she’d made it home but I didn’t have time to dwell on that now. I beat the emergency crews with enough time to scrub in, it was a formality, I wasn’t really a doctor or a surgeon on paper but Fury knew what was in my unredacted file. That was the only reason i’d gotten the call. Sharon jumped out of the ambulance as they unloaded the Director, I didn’t have time to ask what happened as they got him on the table. The faceless people around me started working, IVs were set, intubation tubes went in and all the while I laid my hands where I could. There was a lot of blood and with all the bustle around me I was having trouble triaging the wounds so instead of being able to prioritize and take care of the most dire I was most likely working on primarily superficial issues. If Fury survived this I would have to insist he include specific instructions for my involvement in the future, not just the courtesy phone call. I’d managed to reach past one of the surgeons and inflate his left lung before being pushed back so they could suture one of the other bullet holes. Somehow I managed to pick out Natasha’s voice over the machinery beeping all around me. 

“Is he gonna make it?” She sounded genuinely concerned, and since the doctors in the room clearly didn’t want my help I felt less guilty splitting my attention. From what I could see Fury was out of the woods at this point anyway, I was just helping him along at this point.

 **“** I don't know.” a male voice answered. Captain Rogers? Had they been called in for this?

 **“** Tell me about the shooter.” Natasha’s voice took on an edge, she was out for blood. 

**“** He's fast and strong..had a metal arm.” I wasn’t sure I'd heard him correctly at first with the noises she was having to filter the conversation through but I was pretty sure she had heard him right. 

The assassin had a metal arm. 

“Ballistics?” Nat kept pressing for info but it was Agent Hill that answered this question. 

**“** Three slugs. No rifling and completely untraceable.”

 **“** Soviet made.” It wasn’t a question.

 **“** Yeah” Maria answered, seeming surprised at Nat’s realization. I had a realization of my own. 

Assassin. Soviet slugs. Metal arm. This was going to get worse before it got better. 

“BP’s dropping.” The doctor on my left announced. That couldn’t be right, i’d had my hand right on him and his pulse was fine. The doctor pushed me away from the table and I stepped back. 

“Crash cart coming in.” the cart was put between me and the table, Fury was out of reach. I looked at the monitors, they read that he was crashing but his body wasn’t showing signs of distress, his heart rate had slowed but not to the levels the equipment was indicating. I could still hear it. 

**“** Nurse, help me with the gauzes, please. BP is dropping. Defibrillator! Charge to one hundred.”

The sound of the defib charging squealed in my ears and I heard Nat faintly in the background. 

**“** Don't do this to me, Nick.”

 **“** Stand back! Three, two, one. Clear!” The doctor pushed the paddles into Fury’s chest and his body jerked but the acrid smell of electrical current didn’t singe the air like I'd expected. “Pulse?”

 **“** No pulse.” He said there was no pulse but I could hear it. I looked at the monitor, it wasn’t hooked to Fury. What are they playing at here? My eyes met the doctors as I looked around again, they were calm despite the chaos in the room and I realized that this was part of a plan that I wasn’t privy to. If I interfered, they would do what they had to do to carry out their orders.

 **“** Okay. Charge to two hundred, please. Stand back! Three, two, one. Clear!” another whine, another fake jolt. “Give me epinephrine! Pulse?”

 **“** Negative.”

 **“** Don't do this to me, Nick. Don't do this to me.” I looked toward her voice for the first time and saw the three of them watching through the observation window. Not only was the surgical crew trying to fake the director’s death, I assumed at his request, but they were about to do it in front of three of the best agents in the company.

 **“** What's the time?” the doctor asked and it took a second to realize he was asking me.

 **“** 1:03, Doctor.” I answered

 **“** Time of death, 1:03 A.M.”


	4. Warm Shadow

**[Steve - 06:12 April 8, 2014 - CLASSIFIED]**

Natasha had been standing by the gurney, staring at him for hours, as though she couldn’t make herself believe that Fury was dead even with his body right there. Maria came to take him away and Natasha stormed out of the room. Like an idiot, I followed. 

“Natasha.” I hoped she would wait if I called for her, I could tell she was upset and I wanted to make sure she wasn’t going to do anything reckless. ”Natasha!”

 **“** Why was Fury in your apartment?” She turned, looking at me accusingly. I tried not to panic, I didn’t know how much I could tell her. 

**“** I don't know.” I answered as Rumlow walked up behind me.

 **“** Cap, they want you back at SHIELD.” he interrupted.

 **“** Yeah, give me a second.” I turned back to Natasha but Rumlow apparently wasn’t done. 

**“** They want you now.” He ordered, which was weird considering he wasn’t my boss.

 **“** Okay. “ I said it slowly in case he somehow didn’t understand that I would head back as soon as I was done talking to Nat. I turned back to her. 

**“** You're a terrible liar.” she turned and walked away. I thought about following but heard Stillwell giving orders in the background. 

“S.T.R.I.K.E. team, escort Captain Rogers back to SHIELD immediately for questioning.” 

“I told him” Rumlow answered.

Escort me, my ass. I’d go, I didn’t want to cause trouble but something told me this wasn’t going to be a good day. I couldn’t be taken in with the drive Fury had given me, I had no doubt that being escorted to HQ would come with a search of my person. The vending machine beside me was open, I handed the man refilling it a dollar and took a pack of gum, hoping he didn’t see me replace it with the drive. That would have to do for now. 

I started walking toward the S.T.R.I.K.E. team, I wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of having to track me down. 

“Let’s go.” 

**“** Yeah.” Rumlow nodded. “S.T.R.I.K.E., move it out.

**[Elena - 06:30 April 8, 2014 - CLASSIFIED]**

The phone was ringing. I watched as Maria wheeled Fury out of the hospital. 

“Hi, you reached me. Leave a message.” Great, I'd gotten her voicemail. I looked at the clock in the hall, it was early so it wouldn’t be unreasonable for her to still be asleep. 

“Hey, it’s me. There is some serious shit happening and I need you to CALL me as soon as you get this, if not sooner. I…” I couldn’t leave information like this on a voicemail. “I just really need to stress the urgency here Fin. This is not a drill.”

  
  


**[Steve - 07:27 April 8, 2014 - CLASSIFIED]**

It didn’t take long to get back to HQ and when we arrived the S.T.R.I.K.E. team insisted that I suit up. I suspected it was so they could go through my pockets after I changed because they sure as hell made sure I didn’t take anything but the suit and shield with me. When I got off the elevator Pierce was talking to Agent 13, she greeted me as we passed in the hall. 

“Captain Rogers.”

 **“** Neighbor.” I could have been polite but right now I didn’t give a damn.

“Ah, Captain. I'm Alexander Pierce.” 

**“** Sir, it's an honor.” I shook his outstretched hand. 

**“** The honor is mine, Captain. My father served in the 101st. Come on in.” He held the door for me.

I followed him into his office and he handed me some photo print outs.

“That photo was taken five years after Nick and I met. When I was at the State Department in Bogota. ELN rebels took the embassy, and security got me out, but the rebels took hostages. Nick was deputy chief for the SHIELD station there. And he comes to me with a plan. He wants to storm the building through the sewers. I said, ‘No, we'll negotiate.’ Turned out the ELN didn't negotiate, so they put out a kill order. They stormed the basement, and what did they find? They find it empty.” He sat and I followed his lead. “Nick had ignored my direct order and carried out an unauthorized military operation on foreign soil. He saved the lives of a dozen political officers, including my daughter.”

 **“** So you gave him a promotion.” I was having trouble grasping what his point was supposed to be. 

**“** I've never had any cause to regret it. Captain, why was Nick in your apartment last night?”

 **“** I don't know.” It wasn’t technically a lie. 

**“** You know it was bugged?” he asked. 

**“** I did, because Nick told me.”

 **“** Did he tell you he was the one who bugged it?” Pierce smiled. I didn’t answer. The information didn’t surprise me, I had my suspicion when he told me about the bug, but Pierce had just confirmed it as though it was common knowledge. Hell, maybe it was. . 

“I want you to see something,” Pierce pulled up Batroc on a monitor, he was being interrogated. 

**“** Is that live?

 **“** Yeah, they picked him up last night in a not-so-safe house in Algiers.”

 **“** Are you saying he's a suspect? Assassination isn't Batroc's line.”

 **“** No, it's more complicated than that. Batroc was hired anonymously to attack the Lemurian Star and he was contacted by e-mail and paid by wire transfer. And then the money was run through seventeen fictitious accounts, the last one going to a holding company that was registered to a Jacob Veech.” Pierce said it like it should mean something but I was drawing a blank. 

**“** Am I supposed to know who that is?”

“Not likely.” He handed me a file. “Veech died six years ago. His last address was 1435 Elmhurst Drive. When I first met Nick his mother lived at 1437.”

 **“** Are you saying Fury hired the pirates? Why?” I couldn't think of a reason the director of SHIELD would need to attack his own ship.

 **“** Well the prevailing theory was that the hijacking was a cover for the acquisition and sale of classified intelligence. The sale went sour and that led to Nick's death.”

 **“** If you really knew Nick Fury you know that's not true.”

 **“** Why do you think we're talking?” He stood and walked to the window, I got up as well but didn’t follow. Apparently we were done with the sitting portion of this meeting. “See, I took a seat on the Council not because I wanted to but because Nick asked me to, because we were both realists. We knew that despite all the diplomacy and the handshaking and the rhetoric, that to build a better world sometimes means having to tear the old one down. And that makes enemies. Those people that call you dirty because you got the guts to stick your hands in the mud and try to build something better. And the idea that those people could be happy today, makes me really, really angry.”

He paused, I guessed to emphasis the ‘really really angry’ bit. 

“Captain, you were the last one to see Nick alive. I don't think that's an accident, and I don't think you do either. So I'm gonna ask again, why was he there?”

 **“** He told me not to trust anyone.”

 **“** I wonder if that included him.”

 **“** I'm sorry. Those were his last words. Excuse me.” I put the shield back on and started to walk out. 

**“** Captain.” I turned back. “Somebody murdered my friend and I'm gonna find out why. Anyone gets in my way, they're gonna regret it. Anyone.”

 **“** Understood.” I answered as I walked out. I understood alright, I understood that he was putting this on me somehow. I got on the elevator, thinking about how to get back to the hospital without a tail, I needed to get that drive back. The elevator confirmed that it heard my request to be taken to operations control as Rumlow stepped into the elevator, saying something about S.T.R.I.K.E. personnel on site. I was only half listening until he addressed me directly. 

“Cap.”

“Rumlow.”

We started down and he turned toward me. 

“Evidence response found some fibers on the roof they want us to see. You want me to get the tac-team ready?” He asked, he seemed jumpy. 

“No, let's wait and see what it is first.” He knew as well as I did that we didn’t look at the evidence, we were told what the evidence was and if that helped us then it helped us, we didn’t act because someone found a stray hair. 

**“** Right.” Rumlow said bluntly, turning back to face the elevator doors. The guy that had gotten on with Rumlow hadn’t spoken but he kept touching his side arm like he was worried it was going to fall out of his holster. The doors opened and four guys in suits got in, headed for administrations, they pushed behind me. 

“Um...sorry about what happened with Fury.” Rumlow brought it up almost casually. ”Messed up what happened to him.”

“Thank you.” I answered, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something weird was going on. I tried to pay attention to the other agents in the elevator, they were talking but it wasn’t the casual conversation that you normally heard in an elevator, it wasn’t shop talk either. They were talking about nothing and looked very nervous about it. The doors opened again and three of Rumlow’s biggest guys from the S.T.R.I.K.E. team boarded, heading to records. If those three could read, I'd eat my shield. The doors closed and I realized it was too late to do much about the situation now. 

“Before we get started, does anyone want to get out? 

**[Elena - 08:02 April 8, 2014 -** **CLASSIFIED** **]**

It had been a couple of hours since I had left a message with Fin and I was starting to worry. I took my phone out of my pocket and started to dial her number again when the elevator opened. Upon first glance it was a civilian, his hood pulled over his head, he looked uncomfortable but otherwise inconspicuous. However, his scent gave him away. I shook my head, trying to block out Fin’s voice in my head asking what Patriotism smelled like as I watched him walk toward a vending machine. He looked into it for a moment, as if he were trying to decide what he wanted, when Natasha appeared behind him chewing some gum. Neither of them had noticed me, so when Steve angrily took her into a side room I chose to keep it that way and see what information I could gather, I needed to know what was going on.

 **“** Where is it?” he demanded, from the sound of it he had slammed her into the wall.

 **“** Safe.” The voice wasn’t as steady as it normally way, he must have caught her off guard. 

**“** Do better!” he hissed.

 **“** Where did you get it?”

 **“** Why would I tell you?”

 **“** Fury gave it to you. Why?” The tone of her voice told me the ‘why’ part of herself was trying to work it out with or without his response. A doctor passed me in the hallway and I made a point to look at my phone like it was the most interesting thing in the world. The doctor stopped at the vending machine and I hoped he made his decision quickly, he smelled like he had bathed in Dior. 

**“** What's on it?” He was trying to stay calm but his voice was betraying his frustration. 

**“** I don't know.” she sounded genuine.

 **“** Stop lying!” And there were the rest of those frustrations. I thought about going into the room and playing mediator before reminding myself that they were adults, and if they decided I didn’t need to know what was going on the only thing my interfering would do would be shutting them both up. Although going into the room would be an escape from the Doctor’s obnoxious cologne, my eyes were starting to water. Oh no. 

**“** I only act like I know everything, Rogers.” she said it like she had thought he had already known that about her. I couldn’t hold it back anymore. I sneezed, catching it behind my hand and trying to muffle the sound. The Doctor turned and nodded at me, not offering a ‘bless you’ or anything, just making sure I noticed that he noticed that I had sneezed. Thanks guy. He had finally decided on his vending machine snack and started to walk down the hall. 

**“** I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?” He was whispering again but I didn’t think he had heard me sneeze. Good, that would have been awkward. Wait, did he just say that Fury had hired the Pirates? The ones we had just stopped from taking a S.H.I.E.L.D. vessel? 

**“** Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so do you.”

 **“** I'm not gonna ask you again.”

 **“** I know who killed Fury.” My ears perked up, the Fury hiring pirates was news but Fury was a spy and if I learned one thing it was that they had a weird way of going about getting what they wanted, Natasha knowing the metal armed assassin was of more interest to me. “Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists, the ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years.”

 **“** So he's a ghost story.” I held by breath. I’d heard this Ghost story before. 

**“** Five years ago I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran, somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff, I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him straight through me...A Soviet slug, no rifling.” 

**“** Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now.” His voice was flat and I felt like I'd missed part of the conversation but, knowing Nat she had probably said something flippant and dismissive, trying to deflect his frustration. It didn’t seem to be working.

 **“** Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried...Like you said, he's a ghost story.”

 **“** Well, let's find out what the ghost wants.”

I ducked around the corner as they exited the room, watching as they got into the elevator and wondering how far I could follow them. I decided against it, trying to trail Nat would be nearly impossible on a good day and I wasn’t even about to try it the morning after Fury had been assassinated...well, nearly assassinated technically. I looked at my phone again, nothing. Damn it Fin, where were you! I wasn’t cut out for the spy part of this job and I wanted to ask her how I should handle this, should I chase down Nat and Cap, tell them that Fury is alive? Should I keep it to myself and wait to see what happens? What do I do with the information I just overheard? I felt my phone vibrate and almost dropped it in my rush to answer but it wasn’t ringing, it had just been a text. When I looked I recognized the number as one of the agencies’ and opened the message. When it downloaded the questions going through my mind multiplied, the message was a BOLO bulletin with a picture of Steve Rogers, classifying him as a fugitive and with instruction to detain him on site. 

What the fuck was going on!?

  
  


**[Steve - 11:37 April 8, 2014 - NATIONAL MALL]**

_Warm Shadow - Fink_

“First rule of going on the run is, don't run, walk.” She slowed as we walked into the crowded mall. I looked behind us, it didn’t seem like anyone was following but that didn’t mean they weren’t.

 **“** If I run in these shoes, they're gonna fall off.” I followed her into a store that had rows of computers on the counters, she went to one without anyone nearby and started typing. I couldn’t follow whatever it was she was doing so I covered her, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. 

**“** The drive has a level six homing program, so as soon as we boot up SHIELD will know exactly where we are.” She explained.

 **“** How much time do we have?” I looked around the store for exits, I wanted to make sure we had a way out, there were a couple options but not as many as I would have liked. 

**“** Uh...about nine minutes from…” She plugged in the drive. “ Now...Fury was right about that ship, somebody's trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of AI, it keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands.”

 **“** Can you override it?” I asked, choosing that question instead of ‘what does that mean?’. I understood it meant she couldn’t access the information but otherwise, the details were beyond me.

 **“** The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me. Slightly...I'm gonna try running a tracer. This is a program that SHIELD developed to track hostile malware, so if we can't read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from.” She said it like I was supposed to understand how that was going to help us get the information we needed. 

**“** Can I help you guys with anything?” The voice caught us both off guard and I stepped between Nat and the speaker, trying to cover what she was doing. Nat turned from the screen and put a hand on my shoulders, I tensed.

 **“** Oh, no. My fiancé was just helping me with some honeymoon destinations.” she cooed a very un-Nat-like voice. Right, undercover. 

**“** Right! We're getting married.” I tried not to sound as caught off guard as I was. 

**“** Congratulations. Where are you guys thinking about going?” I looked at the monitor to see if the tracer had worked and read the result.

 **“** New Jersey.” Yep, just honeymooning in New Jersey, completely believable. 

**“** Oh.” The employee looks at me, he wasn’t buying this load of crap. I held my breath waiting for the moment he recognized me and I had to knock him out and run. “I have the exact same glasses.”

 **“** Wow, you two are practically twins.” Nat said as I exhaled. I didn’t know how she did this every day.

 **“** Yeah, I wish.” He gestured to me. “Specimen. Uh...if you guys need anything, I've been Aaron.”

 **“** Thank you.” It was all I could think to say, I felt uncomfortable with all of this and we were on a timer. “You said nine minutes, come on.”

 **“** Shh, relax. Got it.” she shushed me, I looked at the screen again and saw ‘Wheaton, NJ’. “You know it?”

 **“** I used to” a long time ago. “Let's go.” I started to walk away, pulling the flash drive as we moved. We barely made it out of the store before I spotted agents among the crowd, two were walking straight toward us. “Standard tac-team. Two behind, to across, two coming straight at us. If they make us, I'll engage, you hit the south escalator to the metro.”

 **“** Shut up and put your arm around me, laugh at something I said.” she demanded.

 **“** What?” How was that going to help?

 **“** Do it!” she tugged my hoodie, I did as she asked and we made it past the agents as they entered the store we’d just left. I wasn’t sure why that worked but I decided to follow Nat’s lead on this one. We didn’t have far until we were out of the mall and could find a ride, we didn’t see any agents on our way to the escalator but our luck ran out when we hit the stairs. Rumlow was at the bottom, coming up toward us and we were trapped in the crowd, at the mercy of the moving steps with no place to hide. Nat saw him and turned to me.

“Kiss me.”

 **“** What?” I had decided to follow her lead but the request threw me off balance.

 **“** Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable.”

 **“** Yes, they do!” I agreed. She quickly pulled me head down to her and kissed me, holding my face to hers until we were past rumlow, who somehow hadn’t made us.

 **“** You still uncomfortable?” she teased. 

**“** It's not exactly the word I would use.”

**[Fin - 11:42 April 8, 2014 - CLASSIFIED]**

I had dialed Elena’s number and it felt like the phone had been ringing forever. Damn it Elena, you told my in your super vague panic voicemail to call you back, where the fuck are you? The line clicked and someone picked up.

“Fin?” Elena’s voice, she sounded relieved. 

“Yes, what’s going on?” I asked. 

“I’m not completely sure, where are you? This isn’t a phone conversation.”

“I’m still with Peggy, I stayed the night, thought it was strange when the nurses didn’t come to kick me out but this morning they started locking down the facility. I’m on my way out. What CAN you tell me E.” I whispered into the phone, men and women in suits with ear pieces had been showing up all morning, I hadn’t thought much of it until the BOLO for Cap came in and I realized they were probably here in case he showed up to see Peggy. I didn’t want them overhearing my conversation, especially since they had made a point of insisting that I stay here with Peggy when I had tried to leave when breakfast was being served.

“The winter soldier is here, he went after Fury and Nat is freaking the fuck out. Her and Cap have gone off on their own god knows where. I’m trying to get more but it’s chaos. Rumlow sent out a Bolo for Rogers, he’s to be brought in...as a prisoner.”

“Yea I saw. It’s fucked up.”

“Yea, that’s what I said.” She thought for a minute,”“Can you get to the apartment? I can meet you there.”

“Yeah.” I looked around the room, the handful of suits were pretty concentrated at the main entrance but a stray walked past me, glancing over at me on the cell phone. I put on a calm tone of voice and continued. “Yeah, I’m sorry I didn’t make it home last night, I stayed with Aunt Peggy, but I will see you soon I promise.”

“Trouble?” Elena asked.

“Oh no, it’s no trouble at all. She needed me here so my trip home just got a little postponed, but i’m still coming.”

“Are you sure you want to meet at the apartment? I can come to you.” She suggested.

“Mom, I told you, you don’t need to do anything special for me. I’m just going to make sure everything is alright here and then I will be home soon. Promise”

“Alright, see you when I see you.” she sighed. 

“Uh-huh. Love you too mom.” I hung up the phone and went back into Peggy’s room. She was standing in the doorway when I entered, leaning on her walker and trying to look into the lobby. When the agents had started to arrive I had worried she would get over stimulated and break down but it seemed to be having the opposite effect and the adrenaline was fueling her usually frail body. I’d tried to get her to stay in bed but she wouldn't be told what to do, now or ever. 

“Did you have a nice chat with your ‘mum’?” She asked, her eyes reassuring me that she knew full well that call was bullshit. 

“Yes.” I smiled. “She wants me home.” I said, looking pointedly at the agents blocking the exits. Peggy came over to me and laid a gentle hand on my arm as she spoke. 

“You know dear, all this excitement...it’s really not good for me.” I turned to look at her face, saddened at how totally aware of her situation she was when her mind fully belonged to her, but when my eyes met hers, she winked. What was she thinking? She saw the shock in my eyes and hugged me tightly, whispering into my ear. 

“I saw the bolo on your phone darling, get out of here and go back up our boy. He is going to need all the help he can get.” She pulled back smiling and I could see the Peggy of her youth shining in her eyes. She gripped her walker and shuffled into the lobby, determination in every step and sheer fury on her face made no less terrifying by the off white nightgown that hung off of her in drapes. I pressed against the wall so I could see what was happening and avoid being seen as she pointed a gnarled finger at the group of suits. 

“YOU!” She yelled at them, they all turned to her. One stepped forward and put her hands out, I heard her gently say ‘Ms. Carter please’ before Aunt Peggy started yelling at them some more.”YOU DON’T FOOL ME, I SEE YOU. CLEAR AS DAY!” she kept marching toward them and her accusing finger now poked into one of the men’s chests. “I knew you cowards would wait until you thought I was too old to fight, you were too scared to come before and now you’re here, but you won’t take me!”

The nurses had started to come around from their desk, assuming Peggy was having an episode, triggered by the unusual circumstances of the morning. 

“You hear me!” Peggy’s voice rose. “IF YOU TRY TO TAKE ME, BY GOD, I WILL TAKE YOU WITH ME!” She grabbed her walker in both hands and swung it at the man before her, he fell and she hit him on the back, when another man stepped forward and tried to take it from her she twisted it, wrenching his arm. “GET OUT OF HERE! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!” She shouted as the nurses and the suits stationed around the room converged on her. I knew the nurses wouldn’t let any of the agents hurt her and I silently thanked Peggy as I slipped through one of the now unguarded emergency exits. 

  
  


**[Steve - 17:12 April 8, 2014 - NEW JERSEY]**

**“** Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?”

It had taken some time to find a vehicle at the mall and we had stopped every few counties to ditch one and find another to make it harder to track us, along with taking back roads. Four vehicle changes and three hours of riding in silence later I had been starting to wonder which of us would break first and took some comfort in it not being me. 

**“** Nazi Germany.”

 **“** Mm.”

 **“** And we're borrowing. Take your feet off the dash.” I’d wanted to tell her that for the last ninety minutes but I refused to be the first to speak. The look on her face as she took her foot down told me that she’d put them there to try to get a rise out of me and I was happy in the knowledge that I hadn’t fallen for her rouse. 

**“** Alright, I have a question for you, of which you do not have to answer. I feel like if you don't answer it though, you're kind of answering it, you know?” Apparently this was the question she had been wanting to ask for the last two hours and the car stealing had just been the ice breaker.

 **“** What?” I asked impatiently, I was pretty sure I knew where this was going and I wanted to get it over with. 

**“** Was that your first kiss since 1945?”

 **“** That bad, huh?” That’s right Steve, distract from the question with your defensiveness, she won’t ever see through that. 

**“** I didn't say that.” She said apologetically. 

**“** Well, it kind of sounds like that's what you're saying.”

 **“** No, I didn't.” the slight hesitation made me think she was choosing her phrasing carefully, “I just wondered how much practice you've had.”

 **“** You don't need practice.” I replied. 

**“** Everybody needs practice!” she smiled at me.

 **“** It was not my first kiss since 1945. I'm ninety-five, I'm not dead.” I just wouldn’t mention that the only other kiss since 1945 was confusing and possibly platonic, she didn’t need to know that. 

**“** Nobody special, though?” I forced a laugh at that.

 **“** Believe it or not, it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience.”

 **“** Well, that's alright, you just make something up.” She said it like it was the easiest solution in the world.

 **“** What, like you?”

 **“** I don't know. The truth is a matter of circumstances, it's not all things to all people all the time. And neither am I.” she explained, it sounded complicated to me. 

**“** That's a tough way to live.”

 **“** It's a good way not to die, though.” she answered sincerely. 

**“** You know, it's kind of hard to trust someone when you don't know who that someone really is.” I wasn’t sure if I was still speaking on the topic of relationships or addressing my issues with her specifically but the statement was accurate either way. 

**“** Yeah... Who do you want me to be?”

 **“** How about a friend?” That’s what I needed right now.

 **“** Well, there's a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers.” We rode in silence for the last couple of hours, not bothering to change vehicles again so close to our destination, by the time we arrived the sun was starting to set in the distance. 

**“** This is it.” I said, getting out of the truck as Natasha checked the GPS on her phone. 

**“** The file came from these coordinates.” she confirmed. I looked up at the rusted sign. ‘Camp Leigh’. 

**“** So did I.” 

The sun was setting as we entered, in the dark it didn’t look like it had changed much as I'd expected. 

“This camp is where I was trained.” I’d said it more to combat the silence as we walked than to make conversation, there were ghosts here I'd been trying to ignore since I walked up. 

“Change much?” She asked, not taking her focus off the tracker. 

“A little.” The empty flag pole caught my attention and I could almost hear my old drill sergeant _‘Double time! Come on Rogers, move it!’_. I’d always been last, my body wouldn’t let me keep up but I wouldn’t let it quit because I wanted it more than anything. Even when I was last, I still finished, that’s what we were going to do now. Whatever was going on, we were here to find what we needed to finish it. 

“This is a dead end.” Natasha interrupted my train of thought, I turned to her and found myself only half listening. “Zero heat signature, zero waves. Not even radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off...what is it?” She asked when she realized I was looking past her. I started walking toward the munitions storage as I explained. 

“Army regulation forbids storing munitions within 500 yards of the barracks...This building’s in the wrong place.” I broke the latch with my shield, determined not to leave here without the answers we came for. 

  
  


**[Fin - 18:39 April 8, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

A hand shot out of the alley as I passed, grabbing me and pulling me in. I turned to swing at my assailant and had to freeze mid swing when I recognized Elena’s face. 

“Dude! I almost punched you in the face. What are you doing?”

“S.T.R.I.K.E. team is clearing our apartment building.” she whispered, pulling me further into the alley but staying where we could see the front doors of the complex. 

“What? Why?” I started before smacking myself. “Right, we’re on Cap’s team. Cap is a fugitive, we aren’t on the S.T.R.I.K.E. team...friend of my enemy or whatever. Who would have thought our upstanding record of not being criminals would be tarnished by Captain America?” I giggled nervously. I didn’t like the idea of having Rumlow team and possibly all of S.H.I.E.L.D. coming for us, especially since I didn’t know what the hell was going on. 

“You want the short version or?” Elena started and I gestured for her to make it quick. “Right. Assassination attempt on the director, all signs point toward Winter Soldier. Metal arm, soviet slug, the whole nine.”

“You said attempt, I thought he was down?”

“That’s what someone wants us to think, I assume that someone is Nick but I can’t figure out why.”

“I would venture to guess that it’s because if everyone thinks he’s dead there’s not a reason to keep sending assassins after him. Either that or the assassination attempt was a ploy to set all this in motion without blame…” I shook my head. “What else?”

“The rest i’m not sure on, i’ve been trying to piece it together with radio chatter but I can’t get the full picture. As far as I can tell with Fury down the S.T.R.I.K.E. team is on a rampage to find who is responsible and for some reason Cap is a person of interest. Personally I think S.T.R.I.K.E. is coming in too hard, it makes me think Cap is their patsy and they had something to do with it.”

“Sounds stupid and devious, so you’re probably not wrong.” I shrugged. “What now?”

“We wait for most of the team to leave, get in and grab our gear and...i have no clue. I don’t know what we’re doing, who we’re fighting. I’m so fucking confused.” Elena growled. 

“Well...let’s start with the basics. Question one. Who do we trust more, Cap or Rumlow?” She glared at me, not justifying the question with an answer. “Right. Team Cap it is. So, question two. If we are on his side, does that mean everyone who isn’t is the enemy? That would make the S.T.R.I.K.E. team the enemy.”

“I think that would make S.H.I.E.L.D. the enemy. S.T.R.I.K.E. didn’t put out the bolo themselves, you have to have clearance to do something on that scale.”

“Shit. Okay.” I took a deep breath. “We’re going against literally everything I've ever known and worked towards.” I wasn’t sure what a panic attack feel like but if I was ever going to have one, now was the time. 

“No.” Elena put her hand on my shoulder as we watched the bulk of the S.T.R.I.K.E. team walk around the far side of the building. “We’re going to do the right thing, that hasn’t changed.”

Something moved in the corner of my eye and I turned to see a S.T.R.I.K.E. team uniform. They reached to the side, looking past me to where Elena had ducked around the corner. I stepped between them, trying to get his attention on me instead and I opened my mouth to call attention to the attacker, knowing she would hear me. No words came out, instead a choked vowel sound escaped me as my muscles tensed and I went rigid. The world started to go sideways and my vision went dark as I hit the ground. 


	5. Mission Statement

**[Fin - 09:00 March 22nd, 2007 - CLASSIFIED]**

_“Fin, this is Elena, she has also just finished her standard training and basic sessions. She will be your partner going forward.” Coulson motioned to a petite blonde who held her hand out to shake. I complied, finishing the sessions made you an official shield agent but training wasn’t over._

_“Nice to meet you. So how did you handle the ole ‘stabs’?” I asked as we shook and I looked her over. She was shorter than my by my a few inches, slim, but her grip told me not to underestimate her._

_“Oh, thank God, I thought I was the only one that realized how unfortunate that acronym was.” She smiled and I laughed._

_“Alright, that's enough making fun of perfectly good program names. Go, you don't want to be late to D.A.D training.” Coulson winked, unable to keep a straight face._

_“He is kidding right?” she looked to me for my expertise._

_“Only a little. The class is actually called Disarm and Defend.” I answered as we walked toward the field where an instructor and several other new agents waited._

_Some I recognised, some I did not. The instructor I knew as a hard ass by reputation only but that didn't keep me from being excited about having a partner, and a girl at that! I had been the only female in my courses and was getting really tired of the testosterone overload._

_The instructor divided the class into groups of 4, 2 armed and 2 unarmed. At this point we all had basic hand to hand skills and he wanted to see what he was working with so he would know how much work needed to be done. Elena and I somehow managed to be in the unarmed group first off the bat and I tried to tell myself it wasn't personal. Surely a professional wouldn't want to test out the weaknesses of the women first, that would be sexist._

_We took positions opposite one another and waited, Elena and I scanning our opponents trying to see what weapons they had as we prepared to unarm them. The instructor shouted to go and all at once the world was a blur. The first guy lunged with a bowie knife and Elena kicked it from his hand, following the momentum with a double fisted hit to the solar plexus. He dropped as the second came at me with a training gun, I grabbed it in his hand and released the clip as I pushed the slide causing the chambered round to eject. It was a showy move but it worked as long as you took them out before they could reload. Seeing my attacker lose his ammunition and reach for the throwing knife on his belt Elena swung a hard right into his kidney and he crumpled into a standing fetal position, dropping the weapon. I started to nod in thanks when I saw the guy behind her stand, pulling a small sidearm. He was already aiming, finger on the trigger. I knew it was a training gun but we were supposed to treat it as though it was real, I didn't think. I jumped onto Elena and we both fell unceremoniously to the ground. The rubber bullet passed over us and hit my attacker in the face, I heard him cursing as I grabbed his fallen dagger and threw it at the shooter. Being rubber it bounced off of his chest but it served its purpose. We were dirty but unharmed and our faux attackers had been disarmed and disposed of. The instructor called the men to him leaving Elena and I alone and I realized I was still partially sitting on her._

_“Sorry” I mumbled, getting up and helping her to her feet._

_“Why did you do that?” she asked, dusting herself off. “It wasn't a real gun.”_

_“I know, but we were supposed to pretend it was...and that's what friends or, er...partners are supposed to do right, watch each other's backs?”_

_“I guess so, I mean, if it were real I would have appreciated it more, not that I didn't appreciate the save but maybe just tell me to get down next time instead of trying to take a bullet for me? Less tackling that way.”_

_“Sorry...i hadn't done that before I hadn't had a reason to.” I smiled awkwardly._

_“First time with a friend?”_

_“I haven't really done that before either.”_

_“What? Be friends?” she asked, genuinely surprised and I nodded, quietly chastising my social skills in the moment._

_“I don't have a great track record for that myself. Maybe we can change that starting now?” she asked. I thought she was mocking my at first, I hadn't met many people that had a similar experience to mine in the socializing department but when I met her eyes I knew she was being honest._

_“Sounds good. You and me, just a couple of odd ducks swimming in the shield testosterone pond...” I mused, belatedly realizing how gross ‘testosterone pond’ sounded._

_“quack quack.” she smiled._

  
  


**[Elena - 18:43 April 8, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

I’d heard Fin drop and turned to see her clenched on the ground, a taser-disc stuck to her neck. I saw a figure behind her, tall and masculine, and I recognized Bronson. Shit, I had hoped he wasn’t one of them, I liked Bronson. He knelt, checking her pulse and reaching for his radio as he tried to get eyes on me. I couldn’t let him call for backup. I stepped into the open and he dropped the radio to stand and face me. 

“Bronson.” I tilted my head in his direction. 

“Allen.” He looked down at Fin and back up to me. “She’s fine...come with me and everything will be alright.”

“I can’t do that, I’m sorry.”

“I don’t want to fight you Allen.” he shook his head and I could tell he was sincere.

“Then let me take Fin and go. You won’t have to.” I proposed, reaching into my waist for my gun. 

“I can’t.” He pulled another disc from his pocket, either he really didn’t want to hurt us or he had orders to take us alive. He moved to throw and I drew, pulling the trigger as I brought the gun up, leaving a trail of holes from his sternum to his skull. I walked to him, watching him blink as his life faded from his eyes. 

“I’m sorry.” I meant it, I didn’t want to kill any of the men we’d been working side by side with over the last year or so, but I couldn’t let him take Fin. 

“Fin! Wake the fuck up!” I shook her, other than the disc she wasn't hurt that I could see which meant I couldn't do shit. “Fin!”

“quack quack” she whispered hoarsely and for a minute I was really concerned the electrical shock had scrambled her brain until she finished “didn't tackle you that time.”

“Progress.” I rolled my eyes, helping her to her feet. “You alright?” I looked her over.

“Yeah, I needed a power nap.” she rolled her shoulders, joking as we started walking toward the building. 

**[Steve - 18:58 April 8, 2014 - CAMP LEIGH]**

_7 & the Fall - Jesse Marchant _

We made our way through the abandoned SSR quarters, finding an elevator that led even further down. It was one of the largest computers I'd ever seen and I could feel it humming in my bones when Natasha turned it on. 

“Shall we play a game?... it’s from a movie that--” She started to explain. 

“I know, I saw it.” I didn’t know how she could make jokes right now, I guess it was how she coped with stress. 

“Rogers, Steven. Born 1918.” The computer spoke, turning the camera to Nat before continuing. “Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born 1984.”

“Some kind of recording…” Nat tried to explain but the computer cut her off. 

“I’m not a recording Frauline. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945, but I AM.”

“You know this thing?” For the first time since we’d arrived Nat sounded as worried as I felt. The difference was, where she was getting confused I was just getting pissed off. 

“Arnim Zola was a german scientist who worked for the red skull, he’s been dead for years.”

“First correction, I am swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972 I received a terminal diagnosis, science could not save my body. My mind however, that was worth saving...on 200,000 feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain.” I was really starting to miss the days when we didn’t have this technology. Sure the internet had its uses but this...this I could do without.

“How did you get here?” I asked. This was a Shield facility after all. 

“Invited.” he sounded smug about it, could computers sound smug? 

“Operation paperclip. After world war II Shield recruited german scientists with strategic value.” Nat shrugged like it was nothing, it was news to me. 

“They thought I could help their cause, I also helped my own.”

“Hydra died with the red skull.” I wasn’t sure if I was telling him or reassuring myself. 

“Cut off one head, two more shall take its place.” He recited. But I hadn’t cut off the head, i’d watched it dissolve into oblivion. 

“Prove it.” I don't’ know what I expected, pictures started to flash across the other screens.

“Accessing archives.” Zola’s voice echoed in the chamber, Nat and I just watched as images moved across the screen; Schmitt, Hydra soldiers, a little girl in a crate, Me and the Howling commandos.. “HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize was that if you tried to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded, and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew, a beautiful parasite inside S.H.I.E.L.D. For 70 years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crises, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed.”

“That’s impossible, S.H.I.E.L.D. would’ve stopped you.” Nat argued. 

“Accidents will happen.” Pictures flashed across the screen, Howard stark’s death,, Nick Fury’s assassination. “Hydra created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice it’s freedom to gain security. Once the purification process is complete, Hydra’s new world order will arise. We won Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your life, a zero sum!”

I punched the monitor, cracking the glass and cutting my hand. I didn’t care, it felt good. 

“As I was saying,” the face appeared on another screen and continued. 

“What’s on this drive.” I interrupted. 

“Project insight requires...insight. So I wrote an algorithm.”

“What kind of algorithm? What does it do?” Nat leaned around me to ask. 

“The answer to your question is fascinating, unfortunately you shall be too dead to hear it.”

The doors to the elevator slammed shut, I threw the shield to try to jam them open but I was too late. Something pinged. 

“Steve, we got a bogey.” She sounded panicked now, which in my experience was very bad. “Short range ballistic, 30 seconds tops.” Yep. That was bad. 

“Who fired it?” 

“S.H.I.E.L.D.”

  
  


**[The Winter Soldier - 21:47 April 8, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

The man was there, he hadn’t seen me but I was no threat to him so it made no difference. My orders were to disarm myself and await further instruction from this man. So I did. He opened the fridge to get milk, when he turned back he saw me waiting. He did not alter his course but instead slowly closed the door. 

“I’m going to go Mr. Pierce, You need anything before I leave?” a woman’s voice was calling from another room. 

“No. Uh...it’s fine Renata, you can go home.” He answered. I approved, he needed to send the woman away so we could complete our business. 

“Okay, night-night.”

“Good night.” He called back, the door clicked as the woman left. “Want some milk?” He offered, reaching for a glass.

I didn't respond, I was not here for pleasantries. He poured his milk as he spoke.

“The timetable has moved, our window is limited. Two targets, level six.” He moved to sit across the table from me, my gun laid on the table between us. “They already cost me Zola. I want confirmed death in ten hours.”

“Sorry, Mr. Pierce I…” The woman had returned, I remained still. She was not part of this. “I forgot my phone.”

“Oh Renata, I wish you would have knocked.” 

  
  


**[Steve - 08:15 April 9, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

I didn’t know where else to go and while I didn’t know Sam very well he was the only person I knew that wasn’t part of S.H.I.E.L.D. and that was enough for now. Natasha found out where he lived and we made our way there. I felt stupid knocking on his door but I was desperate. 

“Hey man.” He answered, looking us over. 

“I’m sorry about this, we need a place to lay low.” I apologized. 

“Everyone we know is trying to kill us.” Nat added. Sam steps back to open the door. 

“Not everyone.” We walked in, and he showed us to a spare bathroom.

I let Nat go first, she splashed water on her face, not trying to be gentle about it. I tried to wash the soot off of mine while she patted the ends of her hair dry. When I walked out she was staring off into space. 

“You okay?” I didn’t know why I was asking, Nat didn’t have a history of sharing. 

“Yeah.”

“What’s going on?” I pried, sitting down with her. She seemed distracted and that’s the last thing we needed right now. She looked at me and at first I didn’t think I was going to get an answer, to my surprise she decided to start talking. 

“When I first joined SHIELD I thought it was going straight. But I guess I just traded the KGB for Hydra. I thought I knew whose lies I was telling but…”She shook her head and smiled sadly, “I guess I can’t tell the difference anymore.”

“There’s a chance you might be in the wrong business.” I echoed her words from before and she smiled. 

“I owe you.” She said sincerely, I cut her off. 

“It’s okay.”

“If it was the other way around, and it was down to me to save your life, and you be honest with me. Would you trust me to do it?” her eyes searched my face, trying to read my reaction. 

“I would now...and I'm always honest.”

“Well, you seem pretty chipper for someone who just found out they died for nothing.” She observed. 

“Well, I guess I just like to know who i’m fighting.” I leaned back in my chair and Nat’s face lit up.

“And who we aren’t.” The confusion must have been readable on my face because she elaborated. “I need to see if I can get ahold of someone...people we can trust.”

“You didn’t think of them before we got here?” I laughed. 

“I did but...i don’t know where they are in this. You know what...forget I said anything. Let me sort that out.”

“I made breakfast.” Sam appeared in the doorway. “If you guys...eat that sort of thing." We discussed our options over breakfast, Natasha and I trying to work backwards to figure out where to start. 

“Zola’s algorithm was on the Lemurian star.” I thought out loud. 

“So was Jasper Sitwell.” She recalled, god we were stupid. I knew it hadn’t made sense for him to be there, I'd known. As soon as Rumlow said he was on board I felt in my gut something was off. 

“So the real question is, how do the two most wanted people in Washington kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight?”

“The answer is, you don’t” Sam laid a folder on the table. 

“What’s this?” I leaned forward, pulling it closer. 

“Call it a resume.” 

  
  


**[Elena - 09:05 April 9, 2014 - SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK]**

We’d spent the night partially on the move, napping in shifts. We’d both put in our comms but so far there wasn’t anything coming over that frequency, either they knew we could be listening or we were out of range of whoever would be transmitting on them. I didn’t know which I would have preferred in that moment. I had found a channel that halfway picked up on the handheld and listened to chatter while Fin slept, trying to keep her the least amount of freaked out as I could. I was having a hard enough time with that myself, between the Bolo on Cap and the missile strike being called in. What the hell were they thinking firing on U.S. soil? 

Once it was daylight we found a place we were familiar enough with to move among a crowd unnoticed, better to be unseen. As we walked around the panda enclosure I tried to figure out a plan, so far had nothing. If we somehow got into the Triskelion we wouldn’t know what kind of reception to expect. Just being on Cap’s team could be enough to detain us. We didn’t know who was on our side and who wasn’t. Right now the best plan we had was to stay on the move until someone contacted us. At the very least we had managed to break into our own apartments and get our gear. We had to leave most of the tech since it was traceable but it was a start, I was sad we couldn’t have grabbed more but everything I cared about was safe should anyone want to go through our things more thoroughly. Fin groaned and looked over at me.

“I had a terrible idea.” She sighed.

“I have no ideas, so shoot.”

“What about Sharon?” She asked, lifting her hand over her eyes to block the morning light. I had only met Sharon twice and she seemed pleasant enough but I knew Fin disagreed. Sharon always made everything between them a competition growing up, and while I assume it was Sharon trying to compete with Fin for Peggy’s attention it didn’t change the fact that she and Fin didn’t get along. 

“Do you think she knows anything?” I asked, it wasn't the worst plan. 

“All I know is that she was scheduled to work when all this started. “ Fin’s eyes went wide. “You don’t think she’d behind it all, do you?” Fin almost sounded hopeful. 

“I think it’s unlikely.” I dashed her hopes and dreams of a mortal nemesis. “Can you call her?”

“Yeah.” She sat up, taking out a burner phone and dialing. I sat beside her so I could hear both sides of the conversation.

“Hello?” Sharon picked up on the first ring.

“Hello.” Fin put on a soft secretary voice. “My name is Amanda Harrison, i’m returning a call from Sharon?” 

“This is she, can you hold on just one second?”

“Of course dear.” Fin replied. I leaned over to her while we waited. 

“Amanda Harrison?” I asked. 

“Her parents’ first names. Gives her a hint that i’m someone she knows.” Fin explained and I nodded. Smart. 

“Alright, I'm alone. The line is secure.”

“It’s Fin, do you know what the hell is happening?” She lost the calm smooth voice. 

“No. But we’re in full lockdown, no one in or out. Last I heard the entire S.T.R.I.K.E. division was tracking down Captain Rogers, I think the hospital and apartment are still being covered. Are you with him?”

“No, not at the moment. We’re hoping to find him first. Our apartment is being watched, so is the ‘home’.” I didn’t care how secure the line was, I wasn’t mentioning Peggy on an open line if I could avoid it.

“Is everything ok there?” She knew what I'd meant.

“Yeah, it was when I left anyway. Look, I don’t have a lot of info and it sounds like you’re in the same boat. Just…” Fin took a deep breath. “Keep your head on straight, if you hear anything.”

“I’ll call. You do the same.” Sharon hung up. 

“Keep your head on straight?” I asked, “I normally hear ‘keep your head down’ as the expression.”

“Keeping your head down means you aren’t doing anything but saving your own skin, neither of us were raised that way. Keeping straight just means if you are going to act, make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons.”

“Fair enough.” I looked around, we’d been here too long. “Come on, we need to move.” 

I knew Fin had an even harder time being idle than I did but until we knew what we were dealing with we just had to avoid anyone that might take us in. 

“We should start moving in, not too close but if we can set up a nest to keep an eye on who is being allowed to move in and out of HQ it will at least tell us who’s running this circus.”

“We can take Woodley park into metro center, if we want to risk it. It would at least get us closer...i’m not sure i’d take a ride in any closer, on foot we’re less likely to be seen.” I suggested. 

“Yeah…” She seemed like her mind was elsewhere. “The shit’s going to hit the fan sooner or later. I don’t want to be hiding when it does.”

  
  


**[Steve - 09:07 April 9, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

Natasha had gone on her own to retrieve the equipment for Sam, I had trouble calling them what they were, wings. I shook my head in disbelief, still finding it hard to believe somehow. I supposed Hydra’s move to overthrow SHIELD was taking priority and security elsewhere was lacking because she made it back without a problem. Her plan to grab Sitwell had also gone smoothly and I tried to stick with the program as we dragged him onto the roof of 700 eleventh street. Once we reached the top I threw him onto the ground, not having to feign my anger. 

“Tell me about Zola’s algorithm.” I demanded.

“Never heard of it.” He grinned up at me from the ground and I resisted the urge to punch his smug face. We were going with Nat’s plan.

 **“** What were you doing on the Lemurian Star?”

 **“** I was throwing up, I get seasick.” I grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled Sitwell to the edge of the rooftop, he just smiled. “Is this little display meant to insinuate that you're gonna throw me off the roof? Because it's really not your style, Rogers.”

“You’re right, it’s not.” I set him down, smoothing his coat. “It’s hers.” I stepped aside and Natasha high kicked him in the chest, knocking him over the ledge. I had to stop myself from moving to catch him on instinct. 

“Oh, wait.” Nat snapped her fingers, turning to me. “What about that girl from accounting, La-lara, Laura...?”

 **“** Lillian.” I nodded. “Lip piercing, right?”

 **“** Yeah, she's cute.” she suggested. 

“Yeah, I'm not ready for that.” I answered flatly, wondering If Lillian was Hydra too.

Sam Flew past us, carrying Sitwell as they cleared the roof. Sam dropped the man onto the concrete before landing. Sitwell threw his hands up defensively as we walked up to him. 

“Zola's algorithm is a program...for choosing Insight's targets!” He blurted. 

**“** What targets?” I was getting impatient. 

**“** You! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa city. Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to HYDRA! Now, or in the future.”

 **“** The Future? How could it know?” I asked, unsure what he was saying. 

**“** How could it not?” Sitwell laughed, getting to his feet. “The 21st century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it. Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, emails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores. Zola's algorithm evaluates peoples' past to predict their future.”

 **“** And what then?” 

**“** Oh, my God. Pierce is gonna kill me.” He whined.

 **“** What then?!” I shouted.

 **“** Then the Insight Helicarriers scratch people off the list...A few millions at a time.”

**[Fin- 09:42 April 9, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

“Hello?” I answered my burner phone on the third ring, expecting Sharon.

“Fin?” Natasha was on the other line, I couldn’t hide my relief. 

“Nat! Are you alright? What’s going on?” Elena heard my questions and moved closer.

“As good as I can be, I have Sitwell. We’re heading to the triskelion.”

“So are we, although I don’t know what we’re doing when we get there. Wait, Sitwell?”

“Cliff Notes, Hydra is inside SHIELD, they have a plan to take out anyone threatening their take over. We need to get in and stop them from activating project insight. We don’t know how we’re going to do it but we could use some back up.”

“We’ll get there as soon as we can...we just got off the metro...” I reassured her.

“Insight's launching in sixteen hours, we're cutting it a little bit close here.” She sounded like she was telling someone else as well as us and she sounded stressed, something I wasn’t used to hearing from Natasha. 

“I know. We'll use him to bypass the DNA scans and access the Helicarriers directly.” I heard Cap answer her in the background. 

“You’re with Cap?” I asked to confirm. 

“Yeah, trying to keep him out of trouble.” she laughed. 

“How’s that going?” Nat didn’t answer me, instead Sitwell’s panicked voice started talking. 

“What?! Are you crazy? That is a terrible, terrible idea.” he shouted. 

I heard the crash of glass and Sitwell’s screams followed by the honking of a truck horn and screeching tires. The thud of nat’s phone being dropped, followed by rapid gunfire. The whine and crunch of metal hitting metal took over any voices, more glass shattered.

“Nat?” I yelled into the phone, “Nat, what’s happening!” 

“Shit!” An unfamiliar male voice shouted. More gunfire cut him off.

“Hang on!” I heard Cap yell before the line went dead.

“Listen.” Elena held up a hand, tilting her head to the side. I tried to hear what she was talking about but it must have been too far off. “Sirens.” She explained. A SHIELD helicopter flew over us, headed in the direction Elena had been indicating. 

“Go!” I didn’t wait for a response before I started running.

**[Winter Soldier- 09:45 April 9, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C]**

_Mission Statement - Stone Sour_

The targets had left their vehicle and scattered like rats on a sinking ship. I did not waste time, I aimed a grenade launcher at the white male, the canister hit and I watched his body fly over the barrier of the overpass. I heard the crash below as I walked with my men, following the first man’s compatriots. I knew the woman, she had tried to save a target from me before. Letting her live the first time was a mistake, and she had caused me to miss my targets yet again. She was a sly little fox. 

They cowered behind vehicles as we shot, pushing them forward. Occasionally a bullet would come back in our direction but the aim was panicked and wild. I aimed the ICS-190 at the fox. She jumped the concrete barrier as the car exploded. I followed her in my sights, firing again. Another car went up in flames, throwing her off the bridge. I traded the 190 for a rifle and walked back to the side i’d thrown the man over, searching for him. I saw his shield, discarded on the pavement beside an overturned bus. I took aim. 

My head recoiled from the impact, I looked down to see the fox before I went for cover. I pulled off my goggles and found a bullet stuck in the eyeglass. It was the closest anyone had ever come to ending me, and it pissed me off. 

I discarded the glasses, jumping up and firing erratically down at where I'd last seen her. She had run, gaining cover behind a utility vehicle where she continued to fire at me. I returned the favor, as did the men with me. She started to run, looking back over her shoulder at me. I knew she was trying to lure me away from the other target, I saw it in her face. I knew it as well as she did that she had gotten my attention. 

**“** I'll take care of her. Find him.” They could handle him, the fox was mine, she’d made this personal. I lept down, and started walking down the street. An emergency vehicle came around the corner, I took it out win an incendiary and kept going. The sounds of chaos fed my soul as I stalked her, civilians fleeing in my wake. she would not live past this day. 

“Civilians threatened. I make an LZ, twenty-three hundred block at Virginia Avenue. Rendezvous two minutes. “I could hear her voice, giving away her position. Silly fox. I ejected the pin from the grenade, rolling it under the van she tried to hide behind. “Repeat, civilians threatened. I make an LZ, twenty-three hundred block at Virginia Avenue. Rendezvous two minutes.”

The explosion rocked the van but I didn’t have time to confirm the kill before the tricky fox leaped onto my back, causing me to drop my rifle. Her legs wrapped around my shoulders as she tried to pull the garrote around my neck. I managed to get a hand in the way, protecting myself from the wire. I stepped back, slamming her into a car behind us, trying to unseat her. Once she was off balance I threw her forward, her frame bounced off another vehicle before falling to the pavement. I retrieved my firearm, taking aim as she pulled a small metal disk from her pocket. She threw it and it clung to my arm, sending a jolt of electricity through it and causing it to malfunction. I ripped off the device with my free hand, flexing the metal one to realign it as she escaped. The little fox was pissing me off.

 **“** Get out of the way! Stay out of the way!” I heard her shouting as they ran, there was no need. I was not after them. I lifted my rifle to my shoulder, following her in the sights before pulling the trigger. Her shoulder sent up the pink mist of an exit wound and she dropped, still breathing. I moved closer, wanting to see the life leaver her eyes when I pulled the trigger. I ran to the other side of the car she was cowering behind, preparing to take her life once in for all. I saw the fear in her eyes and knew it was over. 

The male was running at me, I had to decide, do I take the shot or block him. If I waited I may not get another chance, but if I didn’t stop him I could miss. I swung my arm into his shield, stopping him in his tracks before kicking him off the car. He rolled onto the street, hiding behind his shield as I fired upon him. He rolled behind a car for cover, leaping over it as I reoladed and knocking the rifle from my hands. I pulled out a side arm and fired, again he hid behind that fucking shield. Coward. When my gun was empty he jumped up, swinging at my face, I caught his swing and he tried a second shot with the shield. I caught it, tearing it from his grasp before hitting him first with his own shield and then with my fist. He flew back on impact, rolling back onto his feet before charging me again. Unlike the fox it seemed he wanted to die today. I threw the shield, he dodged and it embedded itself in a van. Out of guns I pulled a Knife from its sheath, excited for some close up combat. It had been a while. We fought, blow for blow, block for block. He was stronger than i’d anticipated. In my frustration he gained the upper hand long enough to land a blow to my face, following with a kick to my chest that sent me flying. I dropped the knife and as I got to my feet he barreled into me, knee first. I felt my head thrown back, breaking glass as I pulled my arm up to block his next attack. I succeeded and threw a punch of my own, he caught my arm and flipped me over, trying to keep me off balance. I raised my metal arm between us, catching his throat in my grasp. Whatever the fox had done to my arm had weakened it, I would not be able to hold him long. I threw him to the ground, leaping down on him to drive his face into the pavement with my momentum. He rolled out of the way and I slammed into him as we stood, throwing more fists at each other. I pulled out another blade, preparing to push it into his face but he maneuvered to the side and it plunged into the metal behind him. He pushed me to the side, getting behind me and grabbing me around the waist before pile driving me head first into the ground and when I stood he had his shield again, having pulled it from the van. I stabbed at him in frustration, my arm hit shield and I dropped the blade, catching it in my other hand before taking another swing. When he dropped the shield I punched him with my bare knuckles, kicking when he rose the shield for another block. I turned to throw my arm into him on the back swing and he caught it between the panels with the edge of his shield, I felt the mechanism buckle. He pulled free before throwing the metal into my head, causing it to ring. He grabbed my face, throwing me away from him for a change to gain his footing again. I rolled to my feet, my mask left in the dirt. I stood slowly, unsure if I should face him unmasked. No matter, he wouldn’t be able to tell anyone what I looked like after I killed him. 

I turned to face my target, he straightened, staring at me open mouthed. 

**“** Bucky?” he asked, shock apparent in his voice.

 **“** Who the hell is Bucky?”


	6. Tourture

**[Steve - 10:36 April 9, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

Bucky. My best friend was standing right in front of me. The Winter Soldier...was Bucky. He pointed a gun at me as Sam swooped out of the sky, sending him tumbling. He got to his feet, panic painted across his face as he drew his weapon again. This time an explosion separated us and I turned to see Nat holding a grenade launcher. I looked back to where Bucky had been standing but he was gone. Sirens screamed in the distance, quickly closing in on us and for a second I felt relieved, until I remembered that I was a fugitive at the moment. 

Shield vehicles surrounded us and the panic set it, not for myself but for my friends. Nat knew what she was getting into but the guilt for dragging Sam down with us hit me hard. Guns were trained on us, too many to fight, and Rumlow came around the corner, weapon raised. 

“Drop the shield, Captain! On your knees! Get on your knees! Now! Get down! Get down!” I complied, putting my hands above my head. “Get on your knees! Get Down!”

I felt him kick the side of my knee and it buckled, I knelt. Rollins had a gun to my head before my knees touched the pavement. 

“Don’t move.” Rumlow ordered, watching a news helicopter fly above them. “Put the gun down. Not here. Not here!” Rollins lowered the rifle as Rumlow cuffed me. Shoving me into the back of a van with two guards, Nat and Sam. Once we started moving I started talking, I didn’t see a reason not to. 

“It was him. He looked right at me and he didn't even know me.” I knew they’d both heard me call him Bucky when I froze up, there was no point pretending otherwise.   
  


“How's that even possible? It was like seventy years ago.” Sam asked logically. I shook my head. 

“Zola. Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43, Zola experimented on them. Whatever he did, it helped Bucky survive the fall. They must have found him.”

“None of that's your fault, Steve.” Natasha tried to reassure me, it wasn’t working. 

“Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky.”

“We need to get a doctor here.” Sam had realized what I hadn’t in the commotion, Nat was bleeding pretty heavily. “We don't put pressure on that wound she's gonna bleed out here in the truck.”

One of the guards pulled out a tazing baton, charging it and I expected them to use it on Sam to shut him up, instead they pushed it into the second guards chest, incapacitating them. The conscious guard removed her helmet, revealing Agent Hill.

“That thing was squeezing my brain.” She looked at Sam, confusion on her face before asking me. “Who's this guy?”   
  


**[Elena - 12:07 April 9, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

“Who the hell is Bucky?” I kept hearing him ask it over and over again, in James’s voice. 

We hadn’t been close enough to help and luckily that meant we weren’t close enough to be seen either. We watched helplessly as Hydra loaded our friends and allies into an armored truck. When it came time to decide on the plan I'd let Fin take the lead, knowing that given the choice myself I wasn’t letting the Winter Soldier out of my sight, not now. 

Fin decided taking on the entire Triskelion alone was suicide and if Cap stood a chance he and Nat would need to get out of the vehicle before getting to HQ, something we wouldn’t be able to help with given the small army escorting them. She decided we should follow the Winter Soldier to see if he would lead us to answers, I wanted to follow for a different reason but I kept it to myself. 

She left the tracking up to me, after the smoke cleared we’d lost line of sight but I could still smell him. It took most of the day but by dusk we’d found the building he’d gone in. It was old, made of stone with a domed roof, and I had expected them to be holed up somewhere more discreet but this was a fully functioning bank building. They walked in the back and soon the civilians left for the night, locking the doors with the Hydra agents inside. We moved as close to the building as we dared and planned to move on anyone we saw leaving the building. We hoped that even one captive would be enough to get us some answers. 

  
  


**[Winter Soldier - 20:36 April 9, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

_Torture - Les Friction_

I was accustomed to the sound of the metal grinding, it was the smell that I couldn’t get used too. I looked around the bank vault, wondering why they had chosen this place to set up. Was it that they thought the vault could hold me if I disobeyed their orders? Or was it to keep anyone else from getting in? A single word interrupted my thoughts. 

_‘Bucky?’_ I heard the target call me that name again, I blinked and Dr. Zola stood before me. 

“Sergeant Barnes... “ He says my name, standing over me in the snow. Everything flashed, so bright and loud and then i’m on a train...Then I'm falling. 

“Bucky, no!” A man yells as he tries to catch me, he looks like the man on the bridge. Another flash and i’m back in the snow, bleeding. Another man is walking towards me and I hear the sound of drills and metal as Zola speaks again. 

“The procedure has already started.” I hold up my hands and see that the left is metal, “ You are to be the new fist of HYDRA.” The metal arm wraps around the neck of one of the doctors, killing him. And the last words I hear from Zola are ‘Put him on ice’. Everything goes cold and black. 

I jerked back into reality, knocking over the man who had been repairing my arm and I look up to see a gun in my face. Five others take aim before the man called Pierce is let into the cage with me. 

“Mission report.” He demands. I hear him but his words mean nothing. The only words that matter keep repeating in my mind. _‘Who the hell is Bucky?’_ “Mission report, now.”

The man stepped closer, too close, before slapping me across the face. It stung but I did not retaliate. Instead I spoke. 

“The man on the bridge…” I tried to recognize his face but my mind only responded with _‘Bucky?’_

“Who was he?” I asked. 

“You met him earlier this week on another assignment.” He explained, I didn’t believe him.

“I knew him.” I said it out loud, trying to convince myself and gauge the man’s reaction. He took a seat and changed the subject...that was telling in itself. 

“Your work has been a gift to mankind. You shaped this century, and I need you to do it one more time. Society is at a tipping point between order and chaos. Tomorrow morning we're gonna give it a push. But if you don't do your part, I can't do mine, and HYDRA can't give the world the freedom it deserves.”

“But I knew him.” I said it again, unsure the man understood what I was trying to tell him. He turned to the men behind him with a sigh. 

“Prep him.”

  
  


**[Fin - 23:42 April 9, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

My watch had been quiet and I was starting to wonder if there was a secret way out of the bank that we didn’t know about when Elena bolted awake. I realized she was on her feet and before I'd even registered what she was doing, she started across the street. I grabbed the scruff of her jacket, pulling he back into the shadows and standing in her path. 

“What are you doing?” I looked her in the face, she was looking past me at the bank. Her jaw clenched and her muscles tensed in her shoulders. “Elena!”

“Move.” She didn’t say more as the tried to push past me. I grabbed her around the middle trying to keep her here. 

“Tell me what the hell you are doing,” I pushed her back a few steps. “And maybe I will.”

“I’m going in there.”

“No you aren’t!” We didn’t know who, what or how many of each were in that building. 

“Yes I AM!” She growled, pushing me to the ground. I looked up at her as she stomped toward me, determined to get to the building. Her eyes were bright with anger and her fingertips had grown black claws. Shit. I grabbed her ankle as she passed, yanking her down beside me and crawling onto her. “Get off me!” She cried, and I saw that her eye teeth had lengthened as well. 

“I can’t let you go in there!” I argued, she rolled me onto my back but I kept the momentum going and regained my position. She must have heard something I couldn’t because her face contorted in reaction, she threw me off of her so violently I broke through one of the tree’s that had been serving as our cover. I dusted myself off as I got to my feet, taking a running jump at her and tackling her to the ground. I pinned her legs with mine as we rolled on the sidewalk and I hoped there were no security cameras to be seen on. She swung at my face, grazing me with her claws when I didn’t move in time. 

“LET ME GO!” She screamed, hearing it hurt. Whatever she was trying to stop, it was hurting her too, I could hear it in her voice. 

“I CAN’T” I yelled back. “I can’t let you go in there and kill yourself E. You’re all i’ve got…”

She stopped struggling and looked at me, I could see she’d been crying now. 

“Fin...he’s in there...and I can hear him screaming. They’re torturing him and I’m out here doing nothing!” I didn’t understand, she looked back at the building with a sob that was half a laugh as she explained. “It’s James...Yasha, whatever his name is. It’s him. He’s the Winter Soldier… and he’s RIGHT there Fin. Please. I can’t listen to him screaming and do nothing.”

She was right. I got off of her, helping her to her feet now that I understood and she was calm. 

“I’m sorry.” I whispered and when she turned to me I threw the hardest right hook I could manage, knocking her out cold. I carried her back into the shadows, laying her down as I watched the bank, making sure I was touching her so I could feel if she started to stir. I felt bad, but she had been right. I couldn’t expect her to listen to him scream and not let her save him...I just hoped she couldn’t hear him screaming in her dreams. 

  
  


**[Steve - 05:52 April 10, 2014 - CLASSIFIED]**

I was still processing, Nick Fury was alive and giving orders. Son of a bitch lied about his own death and now he was giving US a speech about trust issues. 

“We have to stop the launch.” Nat interrupted, at least someone had priorities here. 

“I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore.” He opened a tactical briefcase containing three computer chips. 

“What's that?” Sam asked, and I was glad I didn’t have to. 

“Once the Helicarriers reach three thousand feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites becoming fully weaponized.” Maria explained. 

“We need to breach those carriers and replace their targeting blades with our own.”

“One or two won't cut it. We need to link all three carriers for this to work, because if even one of those ships remains operational a whole lot of people are gonna die.”

“We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers is HYDRA. We need to get past them, insert the server blades, and maybe, just maybe, we can salvage what's left…” Nick said it like it was going to be easy, like things could go back to the way they were before. I knew better. 

“We're not salvaging anything. We're not just taking down the carriers, Nick, we're taking down SHIELD.” I argued, I wasn’t going to save the remnants for him to take back over. 

“SHIELD had nothing to do with it.” He countered, clearly frustrated. 

“You gave me this mission, this is how it ends. SHIELD's been compromised, you've said so yourself. HYDRA was right under your nose and nobody noticed.”

“Why do you think we're meeting in this cave? I noticed.”

“And how many paid the price before you did?”

“Look, I didn't know about Barnes.” Nick apologized, I hadn’t expected that. 

“Even if you had, would you have told me? Or would you have compartmentalized that too? SHIELD, HYDRA, it all goes.”

“He's right.” Maria agreed, Fury looked to Natasha and Sam.

“Don't look at me. I do what he does, just slower.”

“Well... Looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain.”

I’d wandered off, letting my feet find a path while my mind had its own agenda. I couldn’t stop thinking about Bucky, about who he was now and what I was going to do about it...about how I could save him this time. I remembered the day I’d buried my mother, Bucky had found me at home afterwards, locker out of the house. He’d found the spare key and handed it to me, offering to stay so I wouldn’t be alone. Reminding me that despite losing my family, I wasn’t alone as long as I had him. _‘I’m with you till the end of the line.’_ I recalled his words. 

It’s not the end of the line yet, Buck. I’m coming for you. 

“He’s gonna be there you know?” Sam’s voice broke through my thoughts and I wondered if I was really that transparent. 

“I know.”

“Look...whoever he used to be, the guy he is now...I don’t think he’s the kind you save. He’s the kind you stop.” I understood what he was saying, but I didn’t have to like it. 

“I don’t know if I could do that.” I said sincerely.

“Well, he might not give you a choice. He doesn’t know you.” He pointed out. 

“He will.” I replied, an idea forming as I walked away.. 

“You gonna wear that?” Sam asked and I smiled. No, I was thinking something a little more...familiar was called for. 

“No. If you’re gonna fight a war, you gotta wear a uniform.”

**[Elena - 07:42 April 10th, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

“Shit...SHIT!” I woke up to Fin shaking me as she cussed. “They’re on the move.” She explained and I was on my feet in seconds. 

“Where?” I looked around, I didn’t see anyone in the exits that we’d found. She pointed to the roof. I looked up to see several mean in black tactical gear. “Shit” I echoed her sentiment, if they were on the roof they were either planning to use the building as higher ground, which seemed unlikely, or someone was coming to pick them up. It wasn’t long before the sound of helicopter blades cut through the air. 

“Come on.” Fin took my hand, pulling me away from where i’d been scanning the roof for a familiar face. I followed her without a fight, in the light of day I understood why she’d stopped me from going in the night before. I didn’t like it, but I understood. She led me to an older car around the corner, looking both ways before slamming her elbow into the passenger side window. It fell to pieces with a soft crackling instead of a loud crash, thanks safety glass. No alarm sounded as she unlocked the door and held it open for me before walking around to the driver side. Closing the door behind her I followed suit as she leaned over, pulling wires from behind the ignition. The car started and she grinned, reaching over to put it in drive. 

“Seat Belts.” She looked over at me expectantly and I saw the scratches on her face. A pang of guilt hit my gut. 

“Fin...we’re stealing a car to pursue Hydra agents. I’m don’t think the seat belt is my biggest concern.” I laughed. “Crashing is the lowest on my ‘ways we might die today’ list.”

“Touche” She pulled out of the spot, tires squealing on pavement as she headed toward the triskelion. We didn’t need to guess where they were going, we were running out of time and could only hope that Cap and Natasha had figured something out. Even if Fin and I got to the carrier launch we had no way to stop them. She must have had the same thought. “So , do we have a plan?”

“Don’t die?” I suggested. 

“Simple, I like it. Any objectives?” 

“If at all possible try to keep three heavily armed helicarriers from mass genocide.”

“Right. Also, very smart. Stop Genocide, Don’t die. Great plan...any idea how?”

“None at all.” 

“Good...good…solid...” She mumbled. “What about James? Where does he fit into the plan?”

“I haven’t had time to think about it, I’ve been a little unconscious. If project insight wipes us off the map it won’t matter much in the long run.” I sighed, she made a noncommittal grunt in response. 

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” We made the last curve toward the triskelion and Fin had to slam on the brakes to avoid crashing, I would never admit it but for a moment I regretted the whole no seat belts thing. Traffic was at a standstill on both sides, emergency crews further up the road didn’t seem like they would be moving any time soon. “I guess we’re on foot.”

“Well…”I looked at the traffic ahead of us and at the building in the distance. “If we’re on foot we don’t need to go this way” I suggested, nodding in the direction perpendicular to the road but that would lead us straight to HQ through downtown instead of around it. 

She got out of the car, walking to the side of the overpass, waiting for me to catch up before putting her legs over the edge. 

“At least it’s a nice day for a jog.” She smiled as she dropped over the edge, rolling as she landed and getting back to her feet in one fluid motion. I followed and we started running in the general direction we needed to go, trying to find a pace that was fast but wouldn’t exhaust us. It was easier for me, Fin was fast but burned out quickly, if found my stride I could go for hours. 

We were close enough to see the top of the building, mocking us in the distance as it felt like we weren’t getting closer. Damn it, why had we stayed at the bank? Once we realized we couldn't get it we should have come back this way, or at least tried to pick up the trail of the vehicle that Nat and Cap had been hauled off in. 

I heard James screaming in my mind and remembered, right. I had gone all primal and Fin had to knock me out to keep me from killing myself. Even if I had been conscious she wouldn't have been able to convince me to leave, not after that. 

I saw Fin slowing beside me and looked back at her, wondering what the hell she was doing and saw her looking into a glass storefront. I backtracked to stand beside her and started to ask why she’d stopped, she pointed into the shop. I looked, there was a television on the far wall that was playing live news footage of the triskelion. The news seemed as clueless as we were, the headline full of more questions than answers, asking people to remain calm as SHIELD ran it’s assumed ‘drills’. The helicopter view shifted, showing the water in the potomac churning as the concealed bay doors opened and Fin’s eyes went wide.

“We’re not going to make it in time.” She whispered. 


	7. Everything Burns

**[Fin - 08:39 April 10th, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

I was running harder that I'd ever run, Elena a few steps behind. We’d seen the gates opening, releasing the destruction inside. I didn’t know what we would do when we got there but we had to at least try to get there. I knew in my gut that Cap and Natasha had gotten out of their predicament and I prayed to whatever higher power was willing to listen that they had a plan. 

As we got closer to the Triskelion the static in my ear crackle, trying to pick up radio signal. 

“Please, please.” I begged aloud. We hadn’t picked up anything on the earpieces while we were dodging S.T.R.I.K.E. team agents, nor had we picked up cross signal while we watched the bank. If someone was on this channel it wasn’t Hydra and anyone who wasn’t hydra I wanted to hear from. My phone started ringing and I looked down at the screen. “NOT NOW SHARON” I yelled, picking up the phone anyway. 

“Hello?” I hoped I didn’t sound as out of breath as I felt. I waited, there was no answer. “Sharon?” She didn’t answer but I could hear someone speaking in the background, I focused on them, trying to figure out what Sharon was trying to tell me. 

_“... even ordered to hunt me down. But I think it's time to tell the truth.”_ It sounded like i’d missed the first part in my confusion but I recognized Cap’s voice. I put the phone on speaker so Elena could hear as well. _“S.H.I.E.L.D. is not what we thought it was. It's been taken over by HYDRA. Alexander Pierce is their leader. The S.T.R.I.K.E. and Insight crew are HYDRA as well. I don't know how many more, but I know they're in the building. They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want. Absolute control. They shot Nick Fury and it won't end there. If you launch those helicarriers today, HYDRA will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way. Unless we stop them. I know I'm asking a lot. But the price of freedom is high. It always has been. And it's a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one, then so be it. But I'm willing to bet I'm not.”_ The phone line went dead, whether Sharon didn’t want to risk getting caught or she already had, I wasn’t sure, but I appreciated the call. 

“At least that answers some questions. Cap is inside and by the sounds of it they know what they are doing.”

“More than we do at least.” I grinned. We could get there, we could help. 

“They're initiating launch.” Maria’s voice broke through the static on the comms and I jumped, punching the air in excitement. If she was on this channel she was on our side. 

“Hill? Hill do you copy?” I shouted. No answer. I looked back at Elena 

“Agent Hill, this is Agents Hati and Skoll. We are approaching the triskelion, do you copy?” She tried. “We’re still spotty receiving, we may still be out of range for her to pick us up.” I didn’t argue, she knew more about the tech than I did. 

“This isn’t good. We need to go faster” I knew I was faster than Elena, if I ran flat out right now I would leave her behind easily. I also knew that I was only faster than her if she was on two legs I stopped running.   
  


“Why did you stop, you just said we need to go faster.” She balked. 

“Yea I know.” I took my small gear bag off and walked into an empty alcove. Elena followed. “Take off your gear, you’ll be faster and you know it.”

“She hesitated, only a handful of people knew the extent of her gifts and here I was asking her to flaunt them in the middle of a hydra take over. 

“If I do I can’t cover you, I can’t use weapons, can’t respond on comms.”

“I know, but if we can’t GET there none of that matters anyway...Elena...honestly when we get there I don’t want you fighting. I want you finding the Winter Soldier and track him down before he hurts someone.” She opened her mouth to say something but I didn’t give her the chance. “You said it’s him, right? if that’s true I need you to be the one to find him because if someone else does he is dead, no questions asked and you will never know what you may have missed out on. I need you to know that making him your priority is ok by me... I don’t want you to regret not taking the chance.”

We only stood in silence for half a second before she nodded, taking off her gear and shoving it in my bag. I turned half away from her, mostly to keep watch but also to give her some privacy. The last thing I heard her say before a wolf pressed against my hip was a quiet and relieved, “thank you.”

The comms crackled again as I clipped Elena’s comm into her ear, she winced and continued the frantic race to the finish in relative silence.

“Hey, Cap, I found those bad guys you were talking about.” A voice I didn’t recognize announced, I could hear the gunfire and explosions around him on the open line. 

“You okay?” Cap’s voice, this time not filtered through a PA system and phone. I honestly felt relieved.

“Not dead yet.” Apparently our new friend was alright too. That was good. 

“Falcon, status?” Maria asked. 

“Engaging.” He replied. I made a mental note that the new guy was Falcon, in case we all somehow managed to survive this. “Alright, Cap, I'm in” Gunfire cut him off mid sentence but I would swear I heard him say shit before Maria cut in. 

“Eight Minutes. Cap.”

“Working on it.”

Eight minutes. I looked up and could see the carriers in the air now but I knew we had at least ten minutes before we reached the Triskelion on the path we were taking, even at a full run. 

“Split up?” I yelled at the wolf running beside me, she chuffed at me. “Oh come on it’s not THAT bad of an idea. You can find me after.” I could have sworn she rolled her eyes before taking off down the path, nose to the ground as she looked for a familiar trail to follow. I didn’t have that luxury, instead I focused on the carriers and left the path, hoping today would not be the day I found a sinkhole to fall in or murderous park hobo to trip over. 

  
  


**[Steve - 08:44 April 10th, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

_Everything Burns - Ben Moody_

“Alpha locked.” The first one was down, we could do this. 

“Falcon, where are you now?” Maria was trying to call the plays from the tower but nothing was going as smoothly as I'm sure she would have hoped. 

“I had to take a detour!” Sam shouted, I saw him fly by, missiles on his tail before he tricked them into hitting the carrier instead. “Oh, yeah!” He cheered, making his way into the heat of the craft.

“Bravo locked.” He confirmed before flying out

 **“** Two down, one to go.” Maria sounded relieved. I couldn't blame her. 

“Charlie Carrier's forty-five degrees off the port bow. Six minutes.” Maria updated.

I was surrounded and needed to get off Alpha, not that I couldn't probably take them all out, but I didn’t have time to screw around. 

“Hey Sam? I’m gonna need a ride.” I ran for the edge of the carrier. 

“Roger! Let me know when you're ready.” He replied as I lept off the edge of the ship, and RPG exploding behind me. 

“I just did!” I held out my arms, stabilizing my fall and slowing my decent as he dove. I reached up and thought my shoulder was going to dislocate with the upward momentum as he grabbed my wrist. We landed on the tarmac of Helicarrier Charlie. 

**“** You know, you're a lot heavier than you look.” Sam groaned and I thought it was weird how often I was told that. 

**“** I had a big breakfast.”

A blur came out of nowhere, body-checking me over the edge of the carrier, I heard Sam yell for me as I fell followed by gunfire. My hands slid along the smooth surface of the carrier as I fell, grasping at anything for purchase. My hand found a place to grip as I saw Sam fall past me, spiraling downward. . 

“Cap? Cap, come in. Are you okay?” Sam was hailing me, which meant he hadn’t crashed into the earth with alarming velocity. .

“Yeah, I'm here! I'm still on the Helicarrier.” I pulled myself up. “ Where are you?”

 **“** I'm grounded, the suit's down. Sorry, Cap.”

 **“** Don't worry, I got it.” I reassured us both as I made my way through the bowels of the ship, men standing in my way either moved or I moved them. I didn’t have time to worry about them, I wasn’t sure how much longer I had before the program went live. As I walked into the chamber to replace the blade another soldier stood between my and my goal...this one would be harder to move. 

“People are gonna die, Buck. I can't let that happen.” He looked at me, murder in his eyes. Apparently i’d done something to piss him off. _‘Well you did let him die, that will do it.’_ My brain supplied helpfully. “ Please, don't make me do this.” He tilted his head down and I saw his body coiling to go on the offensive. I didn’t give him the chance. I threw my shield, hoping to catch him off guard. I should have known better. He deflected with his arm and it came flying back at me, I caught it just in time to block the hail of gunfire as I moved in. I swung at his firearm, trying to knock it out of his grip and sent a shot going wide before he dropped into a crouch. I barely had time to react and still didn’t move fast enough to avoid catching a bullet in the side when he pulled out a second gun. I slapped the shield into him and in his crouched position he lost his balance and fell back. When he got to his feet he had traded his guns for a knife, a more maneuverable weapon in close quarters.

He swung wide and I blocked. When that didn’t work he kicked out at my knee, knocking me off balance. When he moved to bring his arm down on me I rose the shield and he bounced off, stumbling backwards but i’d managed to get between him and the console. I took the opportunity to start the procedure. I had to switch out the blades before the protocol initiated. Bucky jumped up behind me, I turned in time to block him again and the knife screeched across the surface of the shield. I tried to kick him away but he knocked away the strike and moved to hit with the knife. I caught it and tried to bash him with the shield again and he stopped me mid swing, the metal plates in his arm articulating under the strain. When he let go I planted my foot square in his chest, I just needed time...i could deal with him once this was done. I pulled out one of the drives but Bucky was back on the attack before I could exchange it for the other. His fist landed in the center of the shield and I had to dig in my feet to keep from sliding back on the metal grate flooring. I pushed him back with everything I had, as long as he was on my I wouldn’t be able to stop this. I swung the shield wildly, trying to catch him off guard but he matched my every move. He punched me in the gut and in my frustration my fist made contact with his face, he reeled, catching himself on the guardrail before turning back to me screaming with rage. He threw himself at me, his shoulder slammed into the shield and we both fell over the rail and I dropped the blade as I landed. I got to me feet, ready for round two as he came at me again. We grappled, I sent my knee into his kidney and he punched my ribs. A metal armed uppercut caught me in the jaw and sent me flying, I landed flat on my back and slid down the metal. I saw green out of the corner of my eye and grabbed it as I passed, stopping myself at the edge and getting to my feet as Bucky got to me. We both struggled to gain control of the fight and he knocked the cartridge from my hand, sending it further down into the hull of the ship. I slammed my arm up and felt his nose crack under my fist before he followed the blade over the edge. I jumped after him and ran for the chip. Something slammed hard into my back and I fell, sliding on the glass as I realized i’d been hit with my own shield. I picked it up as he started shooting at me and I told myself that some part of Bucky must be in there. If the winter soldier wanted me dead he could have just shot me in the back as I ran but instead he gave my shield back? It didn’t make sense. When he ran out of ammunition I threw the shield to disarm him, he punched it out of midair, sending it flying before coming at me with the knife again. I blocked the first two blows, sending the blade glancing to the side but I wasn’t fast enough and he drove the metal into my shoulder. I head butted him in the face, desperately and repeatedly until he lost his grip on the knife and stepped back. I pulled it from my shoulder and threw it to the ground as he dove for the one thing that I needed to stop the carrier from arming itself. I threw myself at him, picking him up by his throat before slamming him into the glass below us. I didn’t want to hurt Bucky but he was in my way and getting stabbed and shot wasn’t doing anything to improve my mood. I knelt, wrenching the arm holding the chip above him, threatening to pull it out of its socket. 

“Drop it.” I yelled through gritted teeth. “DROP IT!” He tried to swing up at me but the angle was wrong, I had him pinned. He didn’t let go ... I did what I had to do. I turned my body, breaking his arm as I did. I heard the snap even over his screams but he still didn’t let go. I released his arm and moved my grip to a choke hold, rolling onto my back where he couldn’t reach me. He grabbed my hand with his metal arm, trying to pull it from his neck and I wrapped my leg around the arm, keeping it restrained. He kept struggling but I had him, I just needed him to give up. Please, I begged in my mind. Please give up. I don’t want to have to kill you...i can’t. I tightened my grip, feeling him weaken and I watched as his arm went slack and he lost consciousness. 

I rolled him off of me, grabbing the chip and running toward the console. I could still make it. 

“One minute” Maria announced as I climbed, I was going as fast as I could. I reached the middle platform and pain shot through my upper thigh. My brain took a second to register that I'd been shot. Shit, I didn’t have time for this. I ignored him and kept climbing. His second shot buried itself into the shoulder that he’d already stabbed as I hoisted myself up. “THIRTY SECONDS” Maria shouted as I reached the platform. Thirty seconds. I have time...i have time, I kept repeating it to myself and hoping it was true as I stumbled to the interface. I held myself up, trying to ignore the pain and steady my hand as I took out the card to place it. 

“Stand by.” I managed to get the words out, reaching to end it all. “Charlie--” I didn’t get the rest of the words out, a bullet ripped through my back and out my sternum. I fell, unable to catch my breath and everything seemed out of focus. I still had that damned card in my hand. DAMN IT STEVE, MOVE! I yelled in my own head, promising myself I could finish dying later. I pulled myself up, gasping for air with every move, I wasn’t sure I could stand, my legs felt weak and I reached for the slot.

I heard the chip click into place and let myself collapse against the console. 

  
  


**[Elena - 08:46 April 10th, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

“Charlie Locked” I heard Cap’s voice come in over the comms, he sounded rough. I couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief, it would be much easier to find James without three helicarriers trying to kill me...i just hoped I wasn’t too late. 

“Okay Cap, get out of there.” Hill sounded as relieved as I felt, I couldn’t blame her. 

“Fire now.” Cap ordered.I looked up, scanning the air frantically for any sign that he was evacuating the carrier. I watched as they opened fire on each other, enough ammunition to take out millions being unloaded all at once and I held my breath, from where I was standing all I could do was watch. Damn it, even though I could hear them I couldn’t even tell Cap how stupid he was being for ordering Maria to fire on the ships while he was onboard. 

“Fuck! You stupid son of a bitch!” Apparently I didn’t have to. Fin’s voice cut in and she said what I'd been thinking...albeit with more colorful language. 

“Excuse me!?” Hill responded. 

“Not you! Hill. Sorry, it’s Hati- fuck it. It’s Fin, Elena and I got here as fast as we could...apparently not fast enough.”

“He gave the order, Fin.” Maria apologized. 

“Yea I heard. I swear to god if he is dead, I'm going to kill him.”

There was a long pause before the new voice, falcon, spoke up. “And if he’s not?”

“I’ll get back to you on that, but it should at least involved a lecture on how to save the day without LITERALLY going down with the ship...I would have thought once was enough.”

A familiar scent floated on the air among the gunpowder and fire. James. I turned in the direction it had come from and it wasn’t the direction I'd been heading. He wasn’t in the triskelion with the S.T.R.I.K.E. team, he was in the chaos over the potomac. My gut turned to ice as I realized why Cap must have stayed on the carrier...he wouldn’t leave his best friend behind. 

  
  


**[Bucky - 08:50 April 10th, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

_The River - Blues Saraceno_

I was trapped...i was trapped under part of the ship as it slowly fell from the sky and the man I'd been trying to kill for two days was coming for me. Panic surged, flooding my brain with one thought ‘escape’. If he got to me he would kill me before I could kill him. He knelt beside me, grabbing the twisted metal and pulling. He lifted it off of me as I watched him warily...this was a trick, it had to be. I pulled myself from under the wreckage, trying to find my footing.

“You know me.” the man growled in frustration. I didn’t know him. When I tried to remember his face I felt the jolts of electricity searing my mind and could taste the rubber bit between my teeth as though it was still there. 

**“** No, I don't!” I shouted, slamming my fist into him, lashing out blindly. I couldn’t know him, I wasn’t supposed to. He got back to his feet, not trying to attack me but just standing there. 

**“** Bucky, you've known me your whole life.” I swung at him, I needed him to stop. I didn’t know him and the more he called my Bucky the more I felt the pain of them taking my memories from me. He hit the ground hard but didn’t fight back, he just kept talking. ”Your name is James Buchanan Barnes.”

“Shut up!” I heard a voice scream, it sounded like it was in pain and I didn’t recognize it as my own as I hit the man again, throwing him away from me. He took off his mask as he got to his feet unsteadily. 

**“** I'm not gonna fight you.” He dropped his shield, letting it wall into the water below. “You're my friend.” He stood there, watching me. Friend. I didn’t have friends. I tackled him to the ground. 

**“** You're my mission.” I countered, beating his face into a new shape with my armored hand, repeating the words to emphasize each blow. “You're. My. Mission!” He didn’t move to block me, to defend himself, he just let me strike his face over and over as he looked up at me with his stupid face. A face that I knew I didn’t know...or didn’t know I knew...

 **“** Then finish it.” I hesitated...i didn’t know why but I couldn’t hit him again...not when he wasn’t even fighting back. “Cause I'm with you to the end of the line.” 

Those words...i knew those words. I’d said those words...a lifetime ago. I’d said them to a scrawny kid in Brooklyn. I remembered. He was my friend and he needed me. I looked at the man in front of me, his swollen face reminding me of a fight in an alley and another time that scrawny kid had needed me. _‘Til the end of the line.’_

A piece of the ship above us gave way and the floor buckled. Glass and metal screeched as it collapsed. I grabbed a piece that was still hanging on and watched as the man fell with the debris. 

**[Fin - 09:12 April 10th, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

I ran to the shore, watching the wreckage slowly sinking into the Potomac. I felt frantic, how was I going to tell Aunt Peggy that I let Captain America kill himself again!? I started towards the water, dropping my pack and preparing for a swim when I heard coughing to my left. I turned and could see color through the brush but no movement, I didn’t hear more coughing but what I could see was the unmistakable old glory uniform. I started for him, picking my pack up as I went. As I got closer I heard movement in the foliage beside me and turned, expecting an attack but none came. I kept going. When I reached the small clearing he was there, laid out on the shore half drowned. I moved closer, cautiously, he hadn’t pulled himself out and I could see boot prints leading away from him. I didn’t know how he’d been pulled out of the river but I didn’t want to find out it was a trap the hard way. Once I was sure the prints didn’t double back I knelt beside him. He was breathing but he was pretty banged up, water still trickling from the corner of his mouth as his lungs pumped it out. 

“Damn it Cap...You know you're not supposed to block the punches with your face.” I sighed, looking him over. There was a lot of blood but the water had saturated his clothes to the point I was having trouble figuring out if it was his or not. I found a hole just under his sternum, yea that was his. I cursed under my breath, how was I going to get him out of here. I heard a rustle in the brush behind me again and turned, gun drawn, in the direction of the sound. The wolf whose clothes I had in my bag looked back at me, head tilted. "Sorry." I lowered the weapon before tossing the pack to her, turning my attention back to Captain Rogers as i waited impatiently for Elena's help.

“How’d you get here?” she asked as she stepped from the brush, she knew as well as I did there wasn’t a road or path for miles.

“When they started firing I stopped navigating with my brain and chose the shortest route to the crash site.” She looked me over and I wondered how bad my face showed the cuts and scrapes from running full speed through the brush without using my hands to clear the path in front of me.

“I was down the road when I caught a scent, I followed it here but found you.” she explained, and I didn’t need to ask but I did anyway. 

“So it is him?” I asked as she knelt beside Cap, looking him over.

“Yeah.” She confirmed, giving me half of her attention as she healed the worst of Cap’s wounds enough for him to not die before I got him to a hospital. 

“I can get him out, I can ask for help over the comms...the tracks go that way.” Elena glanced in the direction I was pointing, looking at the heavy boot prints that sank into the mud along the shore. “Just keep your phone on you. If you don’t check in I'm sending a search party.” 

“Be safe.” She nodded and started to walk off before I stopped her. “Wait...I have a favor, before you go.” 

“Anything.” She adjusted the bag on her shoulder, anxious not to lose the trail.

“Whatever happens...with him.” I nodded toward the boot tracks. “Don’t tell me...I’m done lying to the people we trust...I’d rather you have a secret from me than ask me to keep the secret for you.” 

“Okay…” She looked confused but I knew she would understand eventually. “If you change your mind, all you have to do is ask.” She turned to leave, I waited for her to be out of sight before I called Maria on the comm link, I didn’t need anyone ‘helping’ Elena find the Winter Soldier just yet. I knew not everyone would want to take him in for a chat.

“Hill, you still have ears on?” I asked, praying to whoever would listen. 

“Yes. Fin, what do you need.” She sounded calmer than before but still guilty, I hoped my news would alleviate that. 

“I need a ride. I have Rogers.” She let out an audible sigh and I couldn't help but smile. It was goof to know Maria was one of the good ones. 

“Where are you?” 

“Southeast side of the Triskelion, across the river. I can get to a road.” I confirmed, pulling Cap into a sitting position by his arm and hoping I wasn’t causing more harm than good. 

“I’m sending Falcon. Natasha and I will secure the hospital.”

“Sounds good.” I groaned, lifting him onto my shoulder and pulling his arm around my neck and to the front in a familiar fireman’s carry. Cap’s voice in the back of my head asked if I was happy we’d practiced those and I rolled my eyes at it as I walked. When I got to the road I didn’t see anyone or any cars that looked drivable so I kept walking in the direction of the hospital, hoping this ‘falcon’ would be able to find me. I made it another mile before I heard honking behind me in the distance, I didn’t stop but I did slow down as it pulled up beside me. 

“Agent Hati?” The man driving asked. I turned to look at him, he was a young guy maybe in his late twenties, early thirties. He looked like he’d had a rough day but smiled when I nodded. 

“Fin is fine. I’m not sure there’s anything for me to be an agent of anymore.”

“Fair enough, I’m Sam...You need a hand with that?” He gestured to the unconscious American hero slung over my shoulder and gave me a once over. I could see him trying to figure out how I was carrying the weight. 

“Yeah...He’s heavier than you would think.” 

“He said he had a big breakfast.” Sam shrugged, putting the truck in park and helping me lower Cap into the back seat. 

“Unless he’d mixing his wheaties with concrete, i’m not sure that’s an excuse.” I rolled my neck, trying to stretch the muscles. “Can you take him from here? I have something I need to do...I will meet you at the hospital.”

“Sure thing, He’s safe with me.” Sam nodded and I thanked him before he drove off. 

  
  


**[Elena - 13:23 April 10th, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

_Medicine - Daughter_

I lost the footprints after a while, he was covering his tracks trying to make it more difficult but he couldn’t hide the smell. Fear, panic, confusion, all layered on the familiar smell of James. As I reached the industrial district and the chemical smell from the factories permeated the air I worried I would lose him but a broken chain on an abandoned warehouse door gave him away. I moved slowly, not wanting to startle him or anything else that might be lurking here, as far as places to hole up and wait out a storm this wasn’t the worst. I leaned around a corner, peeking out into the adjoining room and hoping to see some sign of him...some proof I was on the right track. 

Nothing. 

I leaned back against the wall, closing my eyes and inhaling. He was here, I knew it. I opened my eyes as a loud THUD made me jump, James had dropped from the rafters to land in front of me. His face was a contorted expression of pain and confusion as he barked at me. 

“Why are you following me?” he growled, holding a knife out between us. He was having trouble lifting the offending arm and his grip was loose. 

“I’m here to help.” I said softly, trying to keep my voice even as his brows knit in confusion. “I...I can fix that.” I gestured to his shoulder, one of several injuries I could see. 

“Why? Why would you?” He accused, sensing foul play. I couldn’t keep the laugh out of my voice. 

“Because we’ve been here before, you and I.” I looked at his face, taking it in while I could and seeing the urge to bolt in his expression. “You keep coming to me broken, and I keep fixing you.”

“You know me?” He asked, his face relaxing slightly. 

“Yes… ” I hesitated, unsure what he remembered of himself, if anything. “I called you Yasha, and James.”

“The man...the one on the carrier...He said my name is James...He called me Bucky but they are both my name, I think.” He studied my face and I tried to keep it neutral. “Do I know you?”

“You do...did.” My voice broke as my throat clenched and I held back the tears as my heart broke for him all over again. “My name is Elena. The man...his name is Steve.” I added

“Did you both know me?” I wasn’t sure what he was asking at first but his expression told me he was having trouble placing us both in his memories. 

“We both knew you...at different times. Bucky knew Steve a long time ago...they were best friends.” I explained. 

“What about you? ...Were we friends?” He tilted his head to the side in a perplexed look and I smiled a sad smile at him as I answered. 

“No...I wasn’t friends with Bucky...But James? James...I loved him with every fiber of my being.”

“I can’t remember ...I'm not him…I’m not Bucky, or James or Yasha...I...I don’t know what I am.”

“It’s alright.” I wiped a rogue tear from my cheek. “I...The last time I saw you, you weren’t him either...not at first. But you remembered eventually. I can give you time.”

“How? They’ll come for me...you know that. You know what i’ve done.”

“I do. But I know it wasn’t you.” I handed him the whole bag, it had everything a person needed to run. Fin’s burner phone, loaded with my information. Rations, water, cash, even a few of Coulson’s dead drop locations. “Run...if that’s what you need to do. Hide from the rest of the world and find yourself again.”

“Why are you doing this?” He looked into the bag skeptically. 

“You helped me escape a place once, a lifetime ago. I’m returning the favor. Although I do have one condition.” He started to hand the bag back to me but I wouldn’t take it. “Just be safe, stay out of trouble...and maybe let me know you’re not dead every once in a while.”

“I don’t know if I can...i haven’t been on my own in…” He trailed off. 

“If you need help, ask. You don’t have to tell me where you are or what you’re doing but if you need something use the phone. I will do what I can...speaking of…” I pointed to his shoulder. He didn’t answer but turned to the side, leaning his dislocated shoulder toward me. I pulled the neck of his shirt enough to reach the skin underneath and laid my hand there. I felt him tense under me and focused on repairing the tissue, it seemed he’d already popped it back in as he’d run and I was just helping it along. When I was done I kept my hand on his arm for longer than I should have, I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. I’d just gotten him back. 

“Thank you.” He said awkwardly and I let him go. He looked at my face as though committing it to memory. “Elena.” He said aloud with a nod before turning and walking out of my life...again. 


	8. Ghost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Warning: Strong Non-Con situation.

**[S.H.I.E.L.D. - 1946]**

_The box had been successfully delivered to Howard, It hadn’t stopped being cold the entire trip and he had been looking forward to getting his hands on it. Dugan had escorted the box the whole way himself, insisting to Peggy that he would take care of it, and was now waiting on Howard to get back with some test results. He looked at the box across the empty room. He didn’t like it. The Hydra stamp of approval, the creepy way it stayed cold. The fact that Zola thought it was a good idea to drag it out of obscurity. It had to be bad news._ _Howard walked through the door, a grim look set on his face._

_“I knew it.” Dugan exclaimed, standing so abruptly his chair fell over. He righted it while he waited for a response._

_“What?” Howard asked absently._

_“I KNEW that thing was bad.” Dugan grimaced, gesturing to the unopened crate._

_“Oh…that. Yes well.” Howard trailed off. Dugan knew something was wrong. Howard Stark was not a ‘trail off’ kind of guy._

_“What…What is it? Is it radiation? Is it already too late for us? Oh God.” Dugan sat back down, plopping into his chair with a thud._

_“What?” Howard looked up from his notes. “No, no. It won’t kill us…I don’t think. At least not with radiation.” He paused, looking at his notes again, his mouth a hard line of determination as though the papers had a particularly difficult word problem he couldn’t quite get. After a moment he spoke._

_“I need to make a call.” Howard walked across the room to a phone and dialed, his eyes never leaving the papers in his hands. After a review of the little information he had already told Dugan he finally voiced his concerns aloud to the man on the other end of the line._

_“According to the tests…It’s Alive.” Howard’s voice didn’t hide his concern._

_“ALIVE? What do you mean alive?” Colonel Phillips’ voice sounded alarmed through the receiver._

_“Well I ran some preliminary tests, couldn’t get much on the thermal imaging, it being cold and all so I ran radiation tests. Nothing dangerous, just some electromagnetic readings. Then I ran some general diagnostics and got back some funny readings.”_

_“Funny how Stark?” Dugan could hear the colonel’s impatience._

_“Well this is supposed to be a weapon right?” the question was rhetorical, “there isn't anything in that crate that seems like a weapon. No metal, no explosives, no tech to speak of. Nothing registering on the scale of the energy of the hydra weapons either.”_

_“So how does that mean it’s alive?”_

_“Right, I’m getting to that. So, after all those tests came back inconclusive I X-rayed the box and…at first and this was Zola’s idea of a joke but I ran some test and whatever it is, it’s a living thing”_

_“Ho-lee crap.”_

_“What should we do?”_

_“Have you opened the box?”_

_“No. Of course not. I called you first but…”_

_“Don’t. Don’t open it.”_

_“But.”_

_“Mr. Stark, I said don’t open it and that is an order!”_

_“With all due respect Colonel Phillips I don’t work for you and I’m opening that box.”_

_Colonel Philips started to argue but Howard cut him off._

_“You don’t understand Colonel, there is a CHILD in that crate and I will NOT stand here and pretend that I don’t know that!”_

_Dugan’s eyes went wide. He heard the colonel exhale over the phone and when he spoke again he sounded different, like he was trying not to be overheard._

_“Look Stark. I don’t like this. If you open that thing for whatever moral reasons you think you need to you go ahead, but for the love of God don’t wake it up.“ Howard opened his mouth to talk but Phillips kept speaking,”We don’t know anything about this situation and until we do…if you really have that kid’s well-being in mind and not just some sick curiosity you wouldn’t touch it until you know what circumstances put it there.” The colonel paused and no one spoke for a moment. “And Mr. Stark? You do NOT tell any of this to Agent Carter. You hear me?”_

_“But Colonel she-“_

_“Exactly Mr. Stark. SHE. You tell here there is a child in there and she is going to start thinking with her emotions in the matter and nothing else. She WILL NOT know about this. Am I understood?”_

_“Yes Sir.”_

  
  


**[Fin - 16:23 April 10th, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

_Ghost (Acoustic) - Badflower_

All of this felt like a bad dream, and in my opinion I was an authority when it came to nightmares. I wanted to call Peggy, to make sure she was alright. I wanted to go to the hospital and check on Cap. I wanted to pretend that none of the last forty-eight hours happened but I didn’t have that luxury. I would do what I could, when I could, for now I had something else to take care of. I should have waited for Elena, something in my gut screamed at me as I entered the building alone. I couldn’t risk waiting, couldn’t risk Hydra getting their hands on what we’d left behind

I walked up the stairwell, expecting the worst but ran into no one. I guess once the shit hit the fan guarding my little apartment wasn’t a priority. I reached for the doorknob and found it open, the deadbolt kicked through the frame. Rude. I pushed it in, watching it sweep debris out of my path. The living room had been tossed, someone had been looking for something any my eyes unconsciously darted to the baseboard where we hid the files I’d come back for, it had been untouched. Before I could feel relieved a voice spoke my name from behind me, slapping the broken door in it’s frame and I realized too late that I should have cleared all the other apartments on this floor. 

“Doctor Whitehall?” I turned to face him, surprised to see he wasn’t alone. “Q?” I couldn’t hide the confusion in my voice. 

“Come now sweetheart, aren’t you ever going to learn my name?” Dominic held out his arms “Or am I too old for you?” He asked, stepping aside to reveal Rollins brooding behind him.

“Please, gentlemen.” Whitehall waved at the men before turning back to address me with a grin. "Ms. Smith?” I felt the blood drain from my face. 

“It’s Coulson, actually.” I countered.

“You’re legal name is no matter to me.“

”Why are you here?” That’s right Fin, change the subject. Classic avoidance, the shrink will never see through that. 

“You know, I've had my suspicions ever since Agent Coulson first brought you too me to discuss your nightmares. He never said where you had come from, not exactly, nor what your background was that may have triggered these night terrors but I could put the clues together...Not even Arnim could manage that, although I suppose it’s harder to think outside the box when you are one.” He chuckled but I had no clue what he was talking about. “It is quite ironic that the S.S.R. thought that labeling you as having been destroyed would keep us from looking. Don’t they know that was our trick?”

“What do you want?” I tried to engage him again, he was talking circles around me and it was getting old. I didn’t need him to tell me my history. 

“The same thing I always want from you.” He smiled and I looked at him dumbfounded.

“...Well...I feel...pissed off, for starters.” I began and he laughed. 

“No, no. I want what you have hidden in here.” He tapped his temple. “I want to dig into your mind and excavate the memories you hide from yourself. Imagine what you could tell us!”

“I’d rather not...imagine, that is.” 

“Oh…” he tapped his chin. “You thought you still had a choice?” He nodded, signaling Rollins and Dominic to charge me. I managed to strike Rollins across the jaw before Dom got between us, throwing me onto the kitchen island. I threw another fist into Rollins’s clavicle and he cursed, pulling my hair and wrenching my head back. I heard my skull bounce off the marble and he knotted his fist in my hair until my range of motion was impaired. He moved his free hand to my throat as he held me down, I clawed at his fingers trying to loosen his grip but Dominic climbed onto the countertop with me, pinning my legs and arms. I was stuck, and too exhausted to use brute force against them. God, when will this day be over? I tried to lift my body and only succeeded in wiggling against Dom, he laughed as Dr. Whitehall walked up beside us. 

“Discovery requires experimentation.” He explained, his voice sounded far away as he leaned over me, my vision started to blur. Absently I realized my brain wasn’t getting enough air as the blood pounded in my ears. It sounded like Jabari tribe hooting at me in Wakanda and I could almost hear the shouts of the Dora Milaje. Ayo would be chastising me for getting myself into this position and heard Okoye’s voice telling me that if I'd kept my head shaved Rollins wouldn’t have had any hair to pull. I started laughing, there wasn’t any sound to it but I was smiling as my body shook. 

“Is she convulsing?” I heard Rollins ask, disgusted. 

“No. She is laughing at you Jack.” Whitehall struck me across the face with a balled fist and I tasted my own blood as he walked past the kitchen and toward the bedrooms. 

I heard Dom chuckle as Rollins ground his teeth. He let go of my throat and I gulped down oxygen in ragged breaths before he struck me across the face as Whitehall had.

“Bitch.” He hissed and pulled back his hand for another strike but Dom let go of one of my arms to stop him. 

“You know, women are typically more fun when they aren’t dead.” He sounded calm and that concerned me more than Rollins’s rage. 

“I’m not going to kill her, I just want to shut her up!” He argued, letting go of my hair to jab Dom in the chest with both hands. The older man tutted him in disappointment. 

“Why didn’t you just say so?” He slid me across the counter and closer to Rollins, my free hand brushed a half open drawer and I grabbed anything I could. I palmed it to keep it hidden and tried not to draw attention to the free hand. I realized it was just a small paring knife as I slid it up my sleeve but still thanked the universe I hadn’t grabbed a wooden spoon or a can opener. 

“Seems to me like the only thing this bitch is good at is being a little cock tease.” Dom’s voice growled, the weight of him still heavy on my legs.

“That’s just you. I actually slept with him.” I nodded to Rollins, unsure why I was taunting the man. “It wasn’t great.“ That’s right Fin, piss them both off. Rollins yanked my arm and I felt the shoulder dislocate as my head dropped off the edge of the marble, giving me an upside down view of my apartment. I still couldn’t see Whitehall but I could tell he hadn’t found the files and that was all that mattered. 

I kept telling myself that was all that mattered when I saw Rollins undoing his jeans inches from my face and blood rushed in my ears. 

“If you would have stayed with me.” He sneered. "you could have been on the right side of all this."

“You’re on the right side? Funny...seems pretty fucked up from this angle.” That’s right Fin, keep being a smart ass. Maybe you’ll get lucky and they’ll kill you before they get what they want.

“Right or wrong. We get what we want now.” I felt a hand brush my outstretched neck and realized it wasn’t Rollins’s as it started to squeeze, cutting off my oxygen. I felt Dom yanking at my belt before the buckle clicked on the marble as he tossed it aside, pulling apart the front of my pants hard enough to break the zipper. I tensed unconsciously, unsure of what else to do. My dislocated shoulder was already numbing that arm, my legs were pinned and the only weapon I had was the smallest knife I owned . “Aren’t you even going to fight a little? It’s better when they squirm.” I felt his hand slide between me and my jeans, I hate to admit it but I did squirm. I tried to wriggle away but the only thing i accomplished was giving him the space he needed to force his fingers inside of me. I tried not to react, not to give him the satisfaction, but I felt tears pricking at the corners of my eyes as my brain started to panic. Dom grabbed the collar of my shirt and pulled, I heard the fabric ripping as Rollins stepped close to my face. 

_‘Men are easily fooled, let them think they are getting what they want and you will always have the upper hand.’_ I didn’t recognize the voice that spoke in my mind, but ice filled my veins and somehow felt calmer than I had, like I'd been here before and had survived which meant I could do it again. _‘Be willing to kill to survive and, you will always be in control.’_ the voice reassured me.

I detached my mind from the situation as Dom’s hand continued to probe, his other hand was exploring the skin he’d exposed when he ripped my shirt and I tried to ignore it. By the time he took his hand from my chest to start undoing his own jeans it was like I was watching from somewhere else, like none of this was happening to me. Rollins freed his erection from his pants and pushed it against my mouth, I pursed them together, clenching my teeth before I felt his fist slam into my cheek. When I gasped at the pain he pushed inside, his free hand moving to the breast Dom had left unattended. I tried not to gag and felt the weight lift off of my legs. I realized Dom had to get out of his own way to get my pants off.

I moved all at once, throwing my hips as though I was going to do a kick up and using the momentum to wrap them around Dominic’s throat. I squeezed my thighs together as I clenched my teeth. I tasted blood and heard Rollins screaming. He let go of my arm in his panic and I pulled the knife out of my sleeve as I spat a piece of flesh onto the floor. He stepped back as I sat up, throwing my head into Dom’s and breaking his nose. I rolled to the side and off the counter, taking Dom to the floor still trapped between my legs. 

“Isn’t this where you wanted to be?” I spat as I plunged the knife into his jugular. The grip of a pistol jutted from his coat and I drew it as I stood, wiping blood from my chin as I walked toward Rollins. 

“Please…”He was crying and holding himself, I was a little disappointed to see him mostly intact but it wouldn't matter once he was dead. I didn’t let him beg more, I was tired. Tired of hearing him cry, tired of the blood...just tired. I leveled the gun to his head and pulled the trigger. As soon as his body hit the floor my knees buckled, my hands shaking as the entirety of the moment hit me. What the fuck was wrong with me. 

“That seemed like it was overly aggressive.” Whitehall observed. I looked up to see him pointing a gun at me, the one i’d shot Rollins with was held loosely in my hand but I knew I wouldn't be able to get it up before he pulled the trigger. He looked down at Rollin's body. “I see you are not convinced yet. That’s alright, I will just have to find another way to get what is in your head. It would have been so much easier if we'd just picked someone more...capable than Jack to seduce you.” He moved closer and I stayed still, my arms felt heavy at my sides but there wasn’t a point in expending more energy than I had to I would fight him if he made me, otherwise he could just fuck right off. There would be another day for me to deal with him. 

That’s what I told myself as he stepped forward, the cold metal of the gun barrel felt almost soothing against my skin. His finger wasn’t on the trigger and the safety was still on. I closed my eyes. He just wanted to intimidate me before he left. 

“It’s too bad really. I would have liked to be the one to bring you back to your family.”

“Hydra was never my family.” I managed to sound stronger than I felt, straightening my posture as the words left my mouth. The blood still stained my mouth and I felt it wet on my lips. 

“Perhaps that is how you see it now, but will that still be the case when we are all you have left?” His tone emphasized the threat, the insinuation that he would take everyone from me to get what he wanted. I fingers clenched, the nails biting into my palms as the weapon moved from me. I opened my mouth to speak again and choked as the grip slammed into my throat. My eyes shot open as I gasped, my hands going to my neck and feeling the tender skin that was already bruising. I fell over, sucking air as the pressure in my head built.

Whitehall smiled down at me and all I could do was watch him go. Once he was gone I rolled onto my back, tilting my head at the angle they teach you in cpr, the one that is supposed to open your airway. It didn’t help. I ran my hands over the skin again, blinking my eyes to clear my vision and deciding to keep them closed. If they were closed then I couldn’t see the shadows taking over my peripheral sight, or the spots floating in front of me. I tried to speak again and got nothing but pain and coughing. I rolled on my side and spat blood onto the floor but I wasn’t sure if it was mine or Jack's. I rested my head against the cool tile of the eat in kitchen. It felt good and I was so tired...maybe I would just rest here a moment. 

  
  


**[Elena - 16:36 April 10th, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

The sound of my foot striking metal startled me out of my daze. When I looked down I'd expected it to be a piece of one of the carriers, washed ashore, but the familiar paint job told me otherwise. I picked up the shield, wiping off the thin layer of grime with my hand before walking it to the water and cleaning it off. Steve would be happy to have it back. 

I slung it over my shoulder and pulled out my phone, dialing Fin’s number. When it went to voicemail I assumed she had it off, we’d been using the burners since everything started but I couldn’t reach her that way now. 

“Hey Fin, I guess your phone’s off. I’m heading to the hospital to check on everyone. I will see you there.” She would call me back when she finally turned it back on, I reassured myself as I walked. It was quiet compared to a few hours ago, I could still hear sirens in the distance, dealing with the aftermath, but otherwise it seemed I was the only person in the world. I would enjoy that while it lasted. 

**[Fin]**

A woman with a familiar face walked out of the darkness towards me, her arms outstretched and welcoming. The gesture matched her smile but the tears in her eyes confused me. I looked around and saw no one and nothing else, just the woman coming to me. She wrapped me in a tight embrace and she felt warm, comforting. She smelled like a memory long forgotten. I gently pushed her away and looked down at myself, half expecting to see the child’s body I inhabited in my dreams of her but I was myself. I tried to close the rip in the top of my shirt, exposing my bra and she laid her hand over mine, her expression sad but I understood that I didn’t need to worry about it. 

“I don’t understand” I said the words english but the german words echoed in the void. It was unnerving to say the least. She answered me it was with another sad smile and an attempt to embrace me once more. I stepped back, looking around for anyone else...anyone...If this was it, if i was dead...

“Who else were you expecting?" When she spoke I knew her and I saw my own face reflected in hers. I didn't say anything out loud but an image of the man who raised me flashed across my mind. Her expression softened as she answered. “I’m afraid it is only me.” A sharp knot in my stomach fluttered, like butterflies made of glass and I doubled over. I tried to step toward her and the feeling pulled me back. It only stopped when I stepped away and i felt myself slipping from her grasp.


	9. Trouble Man

**[Fin - 06:14 April 11th, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

I woke up gasping on the floor, the early light of dawn streaming through the window onto the bodies of the two men lying on the floor with me. Rollin’s unblinking eyes watched me as I rubbed my throat, it was still tender but otherwise fine. I got to my feet and buttoned my pants, not bothering with the broken zipper before pulling a hoodie over my torn shirt as I shoved clothes into a bag for later, the whole time focusing on what i’d come here for and not what had transpired.

What happened wasn’t important, because it hadn’t happened. I’d stopped it from happening and they were dead and I wasn’t. I was safe. I repeated it in my head as I knelt in front of the baseboard, thanking Coulson for teaching me to be a crazy person that hid things in walls as I pried it open. They were there, all of the files. My original unedited file. It was beside Elena’s full file and a few other’s she’d ‘borrowed’ from the archives, as well as the two I'd stolen from Franz Josef Land on my last trip there. I bundled them all into a pillowcase before shoving them into the bag with the rest of the clothes. When I finally reached the hospital Elena was waiting for me in the main lobby. 

“What happened?” She touched my face and I pushed her hands away, I hadn’t looked in a mirror before leaving the apartment but I would heal myself in a few hours, she needed to conserve her energy in case this wasn’t over. “I tried to call but your phone was off.”

“Sorry, there was an ambush at the apartment.” I said flatly, feeling stupid for going back there alone. “Jack Rollins and that guy Dominic... They were there with Whitehall.”

“Whitehall...your shrink??” she asked.

“Mhm…” It was all the agreement i could muster, I needed to change the subject. “ How is he?” She didn’t need to ask who ‘he’ was. 

“Just got out of surgery a few hours ago, I was waiting for you to go up. Sam’s with him... I found this on my way back.” She held up his shield. “Thought we could take it up.” I pulled the pillowcase out of the bag, removing my file from it before handing the rest to her. 

“Yeah...I need to give this too him too.” I looked down at the folder in my hands. Me, Elena, Peggy and Coulson were the only people who had ever seen it in its entirety, the truth of what and who I was.

“You’re sure?” It wasn’t a question of if I should, she was asking if I would regret it. I was sure I would, but it didn’t change my mind. After everything that had happened I needed him to know all of it. What he chose to do with the information was up to him. 

“I think so.” I answered as we walked. She pulled out her file, the one Coulson had assembled, and put it in my hands. 

“May as well. No point keeping it from him now.” 

I smiled, for some reason it comforted me that she was going to give over her file too. Maybe I just thought that if he was going to react poorly to the truth at least we would still have each other. When we entered his room I had trouble looking at him, his face was more swollen than it had been and he looked pale. 

“Are you ok?” Sam whispered as we walked in, Elena setting the shield down at the foot of the bed and I realized he was talking to me. 

“Yeah, i’ll be alright.” I motioned to my face. “You should see the other guy.”

“No, I meant the blood.” He pointed to the tail of my shirt, hanging out from under the hoodie. Elena stepped behind me. 

“Oh my god, Fin.” I felt her running her hands over me.

“I’m fine!” I insisted and I heard Elena lean forward and smell me. 

“It’s not hers.” She sounded relieved as she pointed to Cap. “it’s his...and...” my eyes met hers as she took my arm and pulled me into an adjoining bathroom. The door was barely closed before she grabbed my chin, turning my head and tilting it up to look take inventory of my injuries. I pushed her hands away and walked to the door to latch it for extra privacy. I knew she wasn’t going to let this go until I proved I was alright. 

“I’m fine.” I tried to reassure her. I started to undress but she stopped me to look at my torn shirt and broken jeans, both splattered in blood. “It’s not mine.” 

“We’ve established that, I’m wanting you to explain the how.” She crossed her arms, partly out of frustration and partly to keep herself from reaching out to heal the superficial scrapes and bruises. They weren’t as healed as they should have been after this much time had passed but I supposed the healing concentrated itself on more urgent matters. I rubbed my throat with the palm of my hand and took a deep breath, grateful for the ability to do so. It did not escape my notice that her gaze rested there and I wondered how bad it looked but I couldn't get the nerve to look in the mirror. 

“Whitehall was looking for something. He knew.” I paused for a reaction and only got a ‘go on’ eyebrow raise. I started fidgeting with the hem of my torn shirt, unable to talk and change at the same time, it was taking too much to keep myself detached as I retold what happened. “Rollins and Dominic were with him, when I wasn’t cooperating he had them go on the offensive...they pinned me down on the kitchen island...Rollins dislocated my shoulder and grabbed my hair. Dominic crawled on top of me and…”

“You don’t have to…” She interrupted but I’d already started now. I shook my head. 

“I do. You know I do. I’ll skip some in the middle though.“ I gestured to the ripped clothing. “At some point my brain detached from the situation, I stopped panicking and just felt...calm...when I got an opportunity I fought back. I’d gotten ahold of a paring knife and stabbed Dominic in the throat...I bit Rollins hard enough to take a chunk of him with me when I got off the table. I spat it at him before I shot him...and after I just sat there, I wasn’t thinking about Whitehall until he came back into the room and pointed a gun at me. I just sat there, I didn’t even try to run...God that was stupid.”

“You were probably in shock...you’re lucky your autopilot mode kicks ass or who knows what could have--”

“I’m not done.”

“But Whitehall didn’t shoot you, you’re here. Who cares if you let him get away, we will find him.” She was trying to make me feel better, which I appreciated, but it wasn’t working. 

“I didn’t let him go...I think.” I rubbed my neck again, realizing the words about to come out of my mouth were insane. “I think he killed me.” 

“What do you mean killed you. You’re not dead, you’re right here!”

“He hit me in the throat...I think he may have crushed my windpipe because I couldn’t breathe, everything started to go black and I saw spots and then I just...laid down...and he left me there with the other bodies.”

“You probably just passed out from the lack of air, i’m sure you didn’t die Fin, stop being dramatic.” She tried to laugh it off but I heard the concern in her voice. She didn’t want to but she was scared that she believed me. 

“I saw my mother. Spoke to her...and before you say it, it wasn’t a dream of her, it was different.” I shrugged and continued to discard the ruined clothes, able to move now that I was done talking. 

“Was it just her?” She didn’t say his name but I knew what she was asking. 

“Pops wasn’t there.” I shoved my bloodied clothes into the biohazard trash can in the corner and started the shower. 

“Are you sure you’re alright?” She asked again and I nodded. I would be. She stepped out and I spend the next forty-five minutes watching the blood swirl down the drain. Eventually I made myself get dressed and leave the bathroom. I dug out the old iPod i’d stashed in my bag and put in the earbuds in before I found a chair to crash in. I told myself that i’d rinsed off the ordeal with the blood. I was safe now, I knew I would be alright because she was here and I could rest. The one thing I could always count on was that Elena wouldn’t let anything happen to me.

  
  


**[Steve - 08:42 April 11th, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

_Trouble Man - Marvin Gaye_

I could hear music playing under the soft beeps of a heart rate monitor.

_‘I come up hard baby, I've been for real. Gonna keep movin', gonna go to town. I come up hard baby, I'm gettin' down.There's only three things that for sure...Taxes, death and trouble’_

I opened my eyes and say Sam sitting on my right, I laid my head back and relaxed, realizing everything was okay. 

“On your left” I said, closing my eyes until the song ended, enjoying the moment of peace. When it was done he stopped the next one and I opened my eyes again to see what he wanted. He nodded to the other side of me where Fin slept in a chair, curled up into a little ball.

“She got you here, says someone else pulled you out of the water but she carried you most of the way until I finally caught up to her with a truck." He raised n eyebrow "Are all your lady friends hot and terrifying?”

“She isn't terrifying.” I laid my head back on the pillow. I’d had Fin and Elena on the team for a while and, while they could handle themselves with the best of us, they weren’t scary.

“Oh really?” Sam whispered, not wanting to wake her. “Well I hope you look forward to the scathing lecture that she’s prepared to give you on the stupidity of dying.”

I laughed, it hurt. Fin took as many risks as I did in the field so a lecture on that topic would be interesting, if not hypocritical. Elena walked into the room carrying three cups of coffee.

“Oh! If I'd known you were up I would have brought you something.” 

“It’s fine, I'm fine.” 

“Well, you are in a hospital bed with multiple gunshot wounds so you being fine is debatable.” She set the drinks down on the table beside Sam before walking over to the bed and holding out her hand. “Here, let me.” 

She moved her hand to my face and I leaned away, she raised an eyebrow at me. 

“Not you too.” She frowned.

“Me too?” I asked and she motioned to Fin. 

“She wont let me heal her either. She looks bad but she isn’t as bad off as you.”

“She’s let you before.” I was confused. 

“She lets me when I'm the one that broke her shit in the first place, she says it’s fair. She heals quickly so she fights me on wasting the energy.”

“She’s right.” I argued. 

“Duh.” I heard a sleepy voice behind Elena and realized our talking must have woken up Fin. "I'm right a lot, for some reason people continue to be surprised." 

“She’s also not in a hospital gown with a hole through her torso, so forgive me if I'm more willing to agree with her than you right now...I’ll let you keep your manly bruises or whatever, just let me help along the rest.”

“You should let her fix your face too, you haven’t seen it but you look terrible.” Fin teased as she walked across the room, dragging her chair up beside Sam and taking one of the drinks as she sat back down. I noticed she had a split lip and a black eye that blended into the bruise across her jaw and down the side of her neck but she acted like it wasn’t bothering her.

“Wow. Thanks Fin.” I laughed and my diaphragm pulled at my stitches, I winced. 

“I can fix that.” Elena pointed out and I was running out of arguments. 

“I’ll let you fix it if Fin let’s you fix her.” I negotiated. 

“You are both stubborn assholes, you know that?” Elena crossed her arms. 

“Yes.” We answered in unison and Sam laughed at us, Elena shot him a look and he put up his hands in submission. 

“Don’t look at me, she scares me.” he nodded at Fin. 

“Aww, thank you.” She patted Sam’s arm. “In all honestly want to lecture you for being an idiot but i’m having a hard time working up the necessary anger while you’re wearing that,” She gestured to the hospital gown. “So I'll agree to let her fix me, so she can fix you, so I can properly yell at you.”

“Well with an argument like that...how could I refuse.” I looked at Elena. “Ladies first.” I insisted. Fin didn’t argue, she stood and leaned over the bed toward her friend, rolling her eyes. Elena smacked her face lightly before laying her hand over the cuts and bruises. 

“You’re turn.” Fin smiled at me, her face back to normal. “Oh, do you want to see yourself first? It’s rare someone can impersonate steak tartare so accurately.” She picked up my medical chart as she sat back down, flipping through the pages as I answered. 

“I’ll pass.” 

“I’m less worried about your face.” Elena leaned forward, moving the collar of this fabric to see the stitched stab wound in my shoulder. Now that i’d given her the go ahead she’d gone from concerned friend to concerned medical professional. 

“I think the bullet wounds should probably be priority.” Fin said absently. 

“They were all through and through.” I argued. 

“True, but one went through your torso. I fixed most of that internal damage before Fin carried you off. You’re welcome.”

“Didn’t keep him from bleeding all over my shirt.” Fin added.

“I’m sorry?” Elena said sarcastically before continuing. “Make yourself useful and hold the door. We can’t have a nurse walk in while I'm doing this.”

“How are you planning to explain it after the fact?” I asked. 

“Supersoldier magic powers?” Elena shrugged as Fin went to lean against the doorway, Sam got up and closed the blinds that lined the wall into the hallway. “Can you lean forward?”

“I think so.” She had to help me move far enough forward to reach behind me and I was glad everyone else in the room was busy doing other things. I felt goosebumps rise as her fingers brushed my back, moving the gown out of the way. 

“It’s not as bad as I expected...you’re lucky it missed your spine.” She spoke softly, trying to keep it between us, which I appreciated. “Unless I pull out the stitches I'm only going to be able to help along the muscle and surface tissue, not anything more internal.”

“If you take them out?” I asked over my shoulder. She shrugged, meeting my gaze. 

“She would need to shove her hand in your torso.” Fin added from the door. 

"She is going to do what?" Sam sat up in his chair, watching us all cautiously.

"Fin." Elena shot me a warning glare.

"Right, probably just a finger...maybe two." She tried to hide her grin behind the chart and was doing a poor job of it, i couldn't help but find relief in the normality of them giving each other a hard time. 

“Fin! You aren’t helping.”

“Yes I am, look, holding the door.” She wasn’t holding it as much as she was leaning back against it but I suppose it served her purpose.

“Ignore her.” Elena whispered. “She...she gets cranky when she’s nervous.”

I didn’t know why she was nervous, maybe there were still some hydra issues that everyone was keeping from me while I was here. 

“Do it.” I pulled the gown the rest of the way off, tired of trying to hold it up and thankful that the hospital had let me have shorts underneath. 

“I’m not gonna lie, it’s gonna hurt.” 

“Then do it quick before I change my mind.” She handed me a wad of gauze. 

“Hold that against the exit wound, it’s going to bleed at first.” I followed her instruction and heard the tsk of a knife being flicked open. “Ready?” I nodded and watched Fin hold the door, she was doing her best to look anywhere but at me as Elena cut the sutures. I felt blood trickling down my back. 

“Take a deep breath and hold it.” I felt Elena’s hand laying flat against the wound and getting warm, it wasn’t unpleasant. I closed my eyes an inhaled, clenching my teeth as I felt the pressure of her pushing past the open muscle. My gut clenched on instinct and I felt the odd sensation of a foreign object against the inside of the muscle. “Try to hold still.” Her voice sounded strained and I did my best to do as I was told. After a minute the pressure lessened and I heard her exhale behind me. I didn’t wait for permission and followed suit. 

"That was amazing and disgusting to watch, so if you don't mind I'l going to go throw up while you finish fingering Captain America." Sam got to his feet, making it to the bathroom before he stopped. "I heard what i said." He closed it behind him before anyone could respond Elena kept going as though Sam hadn't interrupted while Fin tried not to laugh.

“Hardest one is done. I got the one on your side at the same time, it wasn’t deep. Shoulder next?”

“Sure.” I could see the wound and decided to watch, i’m not sure that was the best plan. 

She popped the sutures again, this time not asking me to hold my breath before she plunged her thumb into the entry wound on the back of my shoulder, her middle finger into the exit and her pointer into the stab wound. I had a strange detached thought about her holding my shoulder like a bowling ball as I watched the bleeding slow and stop, the tissue closing as she withdrew. I must have been staring because once she finished she reached up and laid her hands on my face without a word, I felt bones shifting back where they belonged and heard my jaw pop as the swelling subsided. 

“I think that’s it.” Elena sounded tired, I couldn’t imagine how much energy this took. 

“Did you get his leg?” Fin asked from the door. Elena looked at me questioningly. I moved the cover to reveal the bandages. I crossed my arms over my chest, trying not to feel self conscious about sitting so exposed. This time I didn’t watch her work, the shoulder had been enough. When she was done I stood, testing my weight on the leg and stretching. 

“Anything else?” Elena asked as I stretched, I felt great. 

“No. Thank you.” 

“I told you so.” She answered, lightly punching my arm, I deserved that for being stubborn before.

“He’s all patched up?” Fin asked, still looking down at my charts. She’d been glaring at them since we started and I wondered if she was reading them or using them to give me some privacy. 

“Yep, good as new.” Elena answered, stepping away from me. "It's safe to come out Sam." Sam peaked out of the door, watching Fin get to her feet before stomping toward me. She stepped up, lifting her chin obstinately to look me in the eye. 

“You are an idiot!” She shouted, punching my sternum as her cheeks went red. “When a ship is crashing you GET. OFF. THE. SHIP. Cause if you don’t then people are running all over trying to find you and not knowing if they’re looking for a body or...or...Stop looking at me like that, it’s making it hard to yell at you!” I couldn't help but smile, even when she emphasized her words with more smacks to my arm.

“I’m not doing anything!” I argued innocently, I’d just been smiling at her since she started her lecture. While Sam was right and she could be scary I also knew her well enough to know that she’d been worried about me and this is how Fin communicated that. I wasn’t sure what it was but something about her being so riled up at me was...cute. I’d seen her yell at Elena the same way when they’d gotten separated on an OP but I had never been on the receiving end myself. 

“You’re just...You’re standing here in your underwear grinning at me!” I noticed that she kept looking past me instead of at me and blushing when she accidentally caught a glance. I was less than comfortable with the situation but it wasn’t like she’d given me a chance to get dressed and knowing she was unnerved only made me smile more. Fin was typically good at keeping her composure. 

“What would you like me to do about it?” I put my own self consciousness aside and put my hands on my sides instead of crossed in front of me.

“I DON’T KNOW! PANTS?” I caught her eyes glancing down before she covered them with her hands. “I’m trying to have a serious conversation here!”

Sam crossed the room, reaching behind the chair he had previously occupied to grab a duffle bag to toss at me. I opened it to find a tee shirt and sweatpants. I put them on before tapping Fin on the shoulder. 

“It’s safe.” I chuckled, she peaked between her fingers to see that I was telling the truth. She dropped her hands and moved to the opposite side of the gurney, picking up the file she’d left on the table with Elena’s untouched coffee. She held it in front of her in both hands, looking at it and taking deep breaths. She was being serious about being serious. Crap. I sat down, leaning to her side of the bed. “I’m sorry I scared you.” I apologized. She glanced up at me before looking back at the folder. 

“I wasn’t scared.” She denied.

“Of course...well. I’m sorry you were worried then.”

“I wasn’t worried for you...I didn’t want to have to tell Peggy that you’d crashed in a ship...again.” she explained flatly. It was a punch in the gut, I hadn’t thought about her having to tell Peggy what happened or any of the other consequences of me staying for Bucky. I hadn’t been thinking about much at the time...I’d kind of expected to bleed out before the ship hit the water. She handed me the file and I saw her name on the side tab as I took it, it was a thick packet. “In light of...recent events...i want to be completely transparent.” she explained and I started to hand the file back to her. 

“I’ve seen your file Fin.” She took a step away, wrapping her arms around herself as though she was trying to hide. 

“Not this one.” She said shyly. “This is my whole file...and this is the only copy. Myself, Coulson, Elena and Peggy are the only people who’ve read it...but I want you to. It has...It has...” She took a deep breath and I heard the quiver of someone trying to stay calm. 

“Fin…” I tried to interrupt, I couldn’t imagine what could be in her file that had her so scared. I realized her posture had been defensive but too late I noticed that it was me she seemed to be afraid of.

“Let me finish.” She held up a hand. “...I am grateful that I had the chance to be on your team, so thank you for that. I don’t know what you’ll think of what’s in there...So whatever you decide, you’ll know where to find me.”

She walked out of the room, leaving before I could think of anything to say. Elena stepped up, laying a hand on my shoulder and handing me a similar file with her name on it. 

“Consider it a good faith gesture. Both of us want to keep fighting for you Cap, but with the agency being what it is, or was…You need to know who you’re working with.” She followed Fin out. 

**[Steve - 09:40 April 29th, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

It seemed everyone was going their separate ways, Nat had pulled some strings and gotten me a more complete file on Bucky but I’d only added it to the stack. I had a pile looking me square in the face and I was too afraid to open them, too scared of what I might find inside. 

“You ever going to read those? Or are you hoping to absorb them by osmosis?” Sam asked from the doorway, he’d been nice enough to invite me to stay with him for a while. I made a sound in response but it wasn’t a word. He walked into the room and leaned back on the desk. “Well...I don’t speak Russian…” He moved the top file in front of me.

“It has pictures, if that helps.” I teased. He moved to the next folder. 

“I could read this one, but frankly Fin still scares me...so that one’s yours too…” He moved it on to the first, picking up the last one. “Agent Elena Allen.” He started to open the cover and I snatched it from him. He looked insulted. 

“Sorry...it’s just.” I exhaled. “She gave it to me. I don’t know if she wants you to…”

“I get it man.” He clapped a hand on my shoulder. “But if you don’t read them soon, I will. Just so I can tell you what the hell is in them. You’re torturing yourself in here.”

He was right, I knew it. Not reading the paperwork wasn’t going to change the information that was in them. I looked at the file in my hand and exhaled, Sam patted my shoulder again, shutting the door behind him with a soft click as he left me alone. I looked down at Agent Elena Allen’s file, how bad could it be? She’d always been very amenable and I knew that no matter what I read in her file she would be up for a rational adult discussion about it. It was the least intimidating file and I decided to start there. 

It started with her background, born in New Mexico where SHIELD had tried to recruit her father. An incident as a child where she healed a boy, to young to understand the consequences of revealing her ability to the world. She was lucky the person in charge of investigating was someone like Agent Coulson. It could have been worse, much worse. I kept reading and came across the incident report about her parent’s accident. The report had been in the file I'd been given originally but this one had more notes. According to the notations Coulson didn’t believe it was as accidental as it was made to look and he referenced another suspicious car accident in the margins. I recognized the name, apparently Coulson thought whoever killed Elena’s parents had also killed Howard and Maria Stark. I read on, skimming the information that i’d already been privy to until a phrase caught my eye. I read it a few times, hoping it would sink in. 

_Homo Sapien Lupis._

I understood what the words individually meant but the combination...It couldn’t mean what I thought it meant. I continued, words sticking out among the others ‘transmutation’, ‘shapeshifting’, ‘Varguburin’. I reread the pages in disbelief and picked up my phone, ready to call Elena an ask if she and Fin were fucking with me. Instead I sent her a message, asking if she was alright with Sam seeing her file. She responded quickly, as though she’d been expecting a message and left it to my discretion, saying that if I trusted Sam, so did she. I didn’t hesitate. 

“SAM!” I shouted. 

“What!? What is it?” He ran into the room, looking around for danger. I handed him the file. 

“Read this and tell me what you think...She said it was ok.” He took the file and sat on the edge of the bed i’d been using, reading each page carefully. I didn’t interrupt, I just let him read and watched his face. In a few places his brows furrowed or he would nod and I caught my knee bouncing impatiently. When he finished he closed the file and handed it back to me without a word. I had to ask. “So?”

“So?” He shrugged. “Looks like your cute blonde friend might be a werewolf.” I looked at him in disbelief. 

“And THAT’s your reaction?” I scoffed. “How are you so calm about this? It’s impossible!”

“You going from a scrawny kid from Brooklyn to Captain America is impossible. You surviving BOTH place crashes is impossible. My wings are impossible. Man, if the impossible wasn’t possible we wouldn’t have jobs.”

“You may have a point but that doesn’t change the fact that you just learned that a woman turns into a wolf and didn’t bat an eye.”

“I also saw her shove her fingers into a bullet wound and make it disappear. Sorry but the wolf thing is more believable.” 

“Right...well I have two more files of impossible things to read…You might as well stay in here and tell me how i’m overreacting to everything.”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

**[Bucky - 10:01 April 29th, 2014 - SMITHSONIAN]**

I was walking down the sidewalk when I saw a picture of the man that knew me on a banner, hanging on the side of a building. I pulled the ball cap lower on my face as I walked through the door, surprised when no one stopped me. There were too many people here, it felt like they were pressing in around me but I gritted my teeth and kept moving. I came in for answers, I needed to know who he was. 

The display with a picture of him had other men in it, they seemed familiar but I didn’t know why. I did recognize the uniform in the photo as the same one he’d been wearing when i’d pulled him from the water. The placards along the walls had information, in the uniform he was called Captain America and the men with him were the howling commandos. Another display showed him beside a much smaller man, I knew his face more than the one I'd met and heard a voice in my head. 

‘Jerk’ It called me. 

‘Punk.’ I retaliated. 

I learned that the man’s name was Steve Rogers, he had become Captain America to fight in world war II. He was a good man who did great things. I turned a corner and saw a large glass display, a short video was playing on repeat, Captain America and another man laughed silently together. They looked happy and I remembered seeing the other man’s face on the large poster of the howling commandos. The next display was just a picture of the man, he was alone in this photo and wasn’t smiling anymore. Beside him I read that he trained at Camp McCoy, served in the 107th and was rescued by Captain America. My mind flashed a broken memory of being strapped to a table as a short bespectacled man injected me with a mystery serum. It burned and I shook the screams out of my mind, continuing to read as I touched the phone in my pocket, the weight of it reassuring me. It confirmed that he joined the Howling Commandos before he died. I looked at the name etched into the glass, reading and rereading it. 

James “Bucky” Barnes.

My eyes refocused and I saw my reflection in the glass, my hair was long and my face was dusted with a few days worth of stubble but the eyes of the man in the photo were looking back at me. The same eyes, the same jaw...the same name. 

_‘You know me. Bucky you’ve known me your whole life.’_ His voice echoed as the back of my mind tugged at me, the feeling of knowing you had something important you needed to remember but not being able to recall what. _‘I’m not going to fight you, you’re my friend.’_

  
  


**[Elena - 11:27 April 29th, 2014 - BROOKLYN]**

_All around me - Flyleaf_

I walked into the kitchen, setting the groceries on the counter. Fin hadn’t come into the living room when I'd gotten here which meant she was down in the basement, stress punching something again. I’d thought that the hardest part of my partnership with her would be keeping her busy between missions but now there were no missions. 

“FIN!” I shouted, hoping she didn’t have her earbuds in. I’d gone to the store and bought the groceries in, she could at least help me cook dinner. I started putting away the cold goods when I felt my phone vibrate. I took it out of my pocket, rolling my eyes. I swear to god if she just texted me that she wasn’t coming up I was going down there to give her something to punch that would fight back. The text was from an unknown number and I unlocked the screen prepared to be annoyed. No one but Fin and work texted me, and I knew it wasn’t work. The text only had two words but when I read them I felt my knees buckle in surprise. 

‘I’m Alive.’

I was starting to think he’d disappeared off the face of the earth, never to be heard from again. 

‘Glad to hear it. How are you?’ I responded. I wasn’t expecting an answer so when it came I couldn’t keep the giddy smile off my face. 

‘Found Bucky in a museum. I remember when he died but I don’t remember being him.’

‘Not yet, it will come to you in time.’ I didn’t know what else to say, I didn’t want to make him feel pressured to remember things he wasn’t ready for. ‘Have you figured anything else out?’

‘I don't like bananas.’

I couldn’t help but laugh, it was something so simple that most people take for granted, knowing what foods they liked or didn’t like. Before I could answer I got another message. 

‘I’m turning off phone now. It’s not safe.’

‘I understand.’

**[S.H.I.E.L.D - 1995]**   


_“Are you sure about this Director Carter?”_  
  
 _“Quite sure Nick.”_  
  
 _“Why not go to the director with this?”_  
  
 _“Because I trust you to get it done for me. The new director has enough on their plate and I don’t need his fingers in my pie, if you know what I mean.”_  
  
 _She lost herself in thought for a moment, remembering Dugan telling her about the box. He had followed Colonel Phillips order as long as he could, but that sweet man couldn't rest knowing what lay trapped in the cold box, and neither could she._  
  
 _“Yes Ma’am.”_  
  
 _“There is a box in storage. I want it opened and I want to head the entire project myself no questions asked. I will also need at least one Agent to assist.”_  
  
 _“Of course Director. May I ask…what is in the box?”_  
  
 _“Something that should have been taken care of long before now…and it’s not Director any more Nick.”_  
  
 _“As far as I'm concerned, it is until it isn’t. You’re plan to retire is only a formality at this point. So ensuring that your paperwork releasing this box of your belongings back into your custody won’t be an issue.” He attempted a wink, still getting used to only having one eye, although the eyepatch was quite becoming._  
  
 _“Well then, you won’t mind if I get your professional insight on some help with my project then?”_  
  
 _“Of course not. Just let me know what you’re looking for and I'll send them your way. Gotta get something useful out of my recruiting days.”_  
  
 _She spent the next months reviewing the candidates Fury sent her way. The applications turned into interview and the interviews turned into…well mostly arse kissing if she could be blunt. Most of the applicants wanted to work with her because she was Agent Peggy Carter and the Former Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. They wanted to ask her about her past instead of about the project she wanted to start. All but one._  
 _Out of all the candidates there was only one that just wanted to help because he wanted to do something good in the world. She liked him, he had a good heart and reminded her a little of someone from her past. His name was Phil Coulson and he had been an agent for almost ten years, joining the program at nineteen and he had gotten further in his security clearances than any other agent his age. She also found a certain poetry in a descendant of the man who told her to leave the box alone, helping her open it...yes, she thought he would do nicely._  
 _She walked over to the cold box on the table. She hadn’t opened it yet. Part of her wondered if they had been right to leave it untouched, those men that helped her found the very organization she was leaving to behind...no matter. They were gone now, Howard, Dugan and Colonel Phillips, of them all, she was the only one left and she couldn’t let this rest any longer._  
  
 _She walked him to the room she’d set up to function as a medical lab, the cold box on the table remained unopened but she had started a thawing process. The wood edges of the crate had begun to swell as the ice melted and saturated the seams._  
  
 _“Good morning Dir…Agen…" He stumbled over her title._  
  
 _“Please, Agent Coulson. Call me Peggy.” She smiled._  
  
 _“Yes Ma’am. And Phil, please if we’re going to use first names.”_  
  
 _“Very Good Phil.” She knew in her gut that he was the right one for this job, had to be, ”Before we get started I need to get you up to speed on this project. From there we can decide how involved you wish to be but I want you to know up front that you will be a part of this project as long as you wish to be and no one will make you take on anything you aren’t prepared for. I would like to add that you come highly recommended by Agent Fury, and that doesn’t come easy.” She handed him the folder and waited._  
  
 _His eyes met her and she could see the spark of concern in them but it was buried under the excitement. Good. She handed him a thick folder, held closed with a string. The edges had browned with age and some of the papers stuck out in disarray. He opened it. The top page was a Birth certificate, it was in German. His German was passable and he could make out the basics. Geburtsdatum: 27 März 1934, Name: Fenrisúlfr Sigrid Schmitt, Geschlecht: Weiblich._  
  
 _“What exactly am I looking at?”_  
  
 _“This is the birth certificate of Johann Schmidt's daughter.” She didn’t elaborate on the significance. She wanted to see if he would figure it out. He hadn’t asked her to translate the birth certificate so they were off to a good start._  
  
 _“The red skull?” he asked but didn’t wait for confirmation before moving to the next page._  
 _The second page was an S.S.R. Report detailing the story that Doctor Zola told Agent Carter that lead to the discovery of the crate. Coulson kept going. The third page was a death certificate for a woman named Elise Margarethe Schmitt._  
  
 _“Schmitt’s wife?” he asked, not looking up from the papers as he moved on to the next._  
  
 _“Yes. He killed her when she tried to keep his child from him. He was…we have reason to believe that Schmitt tested Dr. Erskine’s formula on his daughter.”_  
  
 _“What makes you think that?” He was still flipping through the file, Howard Stark's reports on his investigation into the mystery crate and the Howard’s notes about what could be inside, photos of Schmitt. Even a couple of his daughter._  
  
 _“Second hand accounts mostly, although there are some cryptic notes in Schmitt’s personal research that seem to hint to that as well…the most convincing evidence is this.” She took the folder from his hands and led him over to the table. He looked at the box with wide eyed wonder._  
 _He read the name on the lid._  
  
 _“This is the name on the certificate?”_  
  
 _“Yes. It’s the German spelling for the Norse Fenris or Fenrir. The wolf that swallows the world and kills Odin in lore.”_  
  
 _“Seems like a strange name for a kid, although I guess not for Schmitt.”_  
  
 _“Phil. This box has been in storage since 1946, when we pulled it out of a hydra munitions factory. We think it’s been sealed since just before the end of the war.” Her fingers absently traced the letters that had become familiar to her now. “We put it away after Howard Stark determined that the contents were...unexpected.”_  
  
 _“Schmitt’s Daughter?”_  
  
 _“Precisely. We chose to let her stay like this because we were scared of what would happen if we woke her…for a while I agreed with that. But I can’t anymore. She deserves to live a life. After decades of researching I have enough information that if she remembers, I can tell her what happened, why she is here now, I have answers that I didn’t have before. My last order as director was to sign the paperwork to wake her up.” She handed him a crowbar._  
  
 _“Would you mind doing the honors?”_  
  
 _He took the tool from her hands and jammed one end into the gap under the lid. He looked at her over the box, she’d waited forty years for this moment. He heaved and the lid came free with a crash. He set the crowbar down and walked to Peggy’s side before peering into the box himself. Inside laid a girl, small and pale. If the math was right she was frozen when she was about nine or ten but Coulson thought she looked small for her age. Her reddish-brown hair was long and fanned out around her head. She wore a pretty blue dress, made a shade darker by the melting ice. She looked like she was sleeping. She reminded him of a life that never was and he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be doing here._  
  
 _“What are we going to do with her?” Coulson asked, reaching into the box to touch the small hand that was almost free of the ice._  
  
 _“That’s where I might need your help, if you're up to the task that is.”_  


**[Steve - 11:42 April 29th, 2014 - WASHINGTON D.C.]**

I kept looking at the photo, the same little girl I'd seen among the images computer Zola had flashed across the screen. I’d given the rest of the file to Sam, letting him read it now that i’d finished and hoping the ball of fury constricting my chest would be gone by the time he was done. I was just trying to breathe and be still, my jaw clenching as I waited. 

“SHIT.” Sam announced as he handed the file back to me. I took it, waiting for him to tell me all the reasons this new information shouldn’t bother me. He went a different route. “So what do you think about all of this.”

“I want to hit something.” I admitted as I put the photo back in the file, laying it on the desk before getting up to pace. 

“You can’t be mad at her for keeping this from you--” He started but I cut him off. 

“I’m not!” I said it louder than I meant to and repeated myself in a calmer tone. “I’m not. I understand why she didn’t tell me, I wouldn’t have told me either. I just...How could you do that to a child!? Let alone your own…”

“It’s fucked up.” Sam interjected. 

“I was RIGHT there too.”

“What do you mean?”

“The base, where they found her.” I flipped open the file on the desk, pointing to the photo of the box where they’d found it. A table with straps could be seen off to the side with other crates, the remains of a burned map hung on the wall. “I was there, RIGHT THERE, I went in after Bucky and the rest of the guys that had been captured. Zola blew up the base as we left so we never looked for anything that may have been in the wreckage.”

“You didn’t know.” Sam tried to calm me down but it wasn’t working. 

“If Zola hadn’t told Peggy…”

“Zola probably only told Peggy so SHIELD would do the heavy lifting and get her. Hell, if the file didn’t say that box had been destroyed Zola would have gotten ahold of her and it she would have been on their side when all this shit happened.” he pointed out. 

“Peggy didn’t tell me.” I added, if I was talking about why the file had pissed me off I might as well not leave anything out. 

“She probably wanted to leave it up to Fin.” He was right but I still didn’t like that she had kept it from me. I’d talked to her about Fin being on my team and she didn’t bat an eye, I never even thought there could have been anything she was keeping from me and it hurt. 

“Over all, it’s pretty messed up but if you think about it it’s kinda cool.” Sam tried to steer the conversation away from anger. I still wanted to be mad but everyone I could blame for this was already dead. 

“What part is cool?” I asked, genuinely confused. 

“There’s another super solder and she’s on our side! What’s NOT cool about that.”

I remembered getting the serum, the blinding light and the pain. I still had nightmares about it sometimes and i’d volunteered for the procedure, I couldn't imagine it being done to a little girl. 

“I knew there was something going on there...not many people laugh after you jump out of 20th story building with them.” I smiled a little, remembering. That memory led to another, Fin trying to bait me into a race. Then another, Fin sitting across from me in a tub of ice water, her teeth chattering as she turned blue and drifted out of consciousness. The image of the little girl encased in ice superimposed itself over her in my mind. My fist flew, slamming through the drywall of the bedroom. 

“Come on, man!” Sam shouted, getting to his feet. 

“I’ll fix it!” I pulled my hand out, dust falling to the floor. “Sorry…”

“If you’re going to start taking it out on my home I'm going to need you to read that last file elsewhere.” He pointed the the Russian file, still untouched on the desk. “I can’t help you out with that one anyway.”


End file.
